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DIRECTING STUDY 



EDUCATING FOR MASTERY THROUGH 
CREATIVE THINKING 



BY 

HARRY LLOYD MILLER 

Associate Professor of Education, Principal Wisconsin High School 
University of Wisconsin 



CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS 

NEW YORK CHICAGO BOSTON 



.Ms* 



Copyright, 1922, by 
CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS 



Printed in the United States of America 




OCT 23 '22 

C1A686431 



DIRECTING STUDY 



PREFACE 

The aim of this book is to direct study toward mas- 
tery through creative thinking. The following may 
be looked upon as major aspects of the discussion: (i) 
to present various illustrative procedures; (2) to pro- 
vide a theory and a plan of organization of classroom 
work in which this sense of mastery and power may be 
gained by students; (3) to indicate ways of dealing with 
individuals of varying achievements in the same group 
so that each student instead of the class-group becomes 
the educative unit; (4) to suggest shifts in emphasis 
from the traditionally assigned lesson in which pupils 
are asked to memorize or paraphrase and recite pas- 
sively, to directed and controlled classroom activity 
(study) in which all pupils are participating, reacting 
agents all the time, and are moving forward, inspired by 
the challenge of problem-setting situations; (5) to move 
steadily from classified groups and group-mediocrity to 
individual activity and the co-operating spirit ; (6) to 
propose as a guiding idea to all teachers that we give 
boys and girls things to do in the doing of which they 
will find out what we would like to have them know. 
It is becoming increasingly evident that incalculable 
sources of human power yet untapped await liberation 
from repressions and inhibitions of traditional prac- 



vi PREFACE • 

tices, and that we can confidently look for a new day 
to dawn in education when we devise ways of reward- 
ing students not for having brains but for using their 
brains. 

The point of departure, stated in the most recent 
categories, is the proposition that, if one boy's I. Q. 
(Intelligence Quotient) is 8/10, another 9/10, another 
13/10, then it is the problem of education to develop 
methods that will insure the full release of powers in 
every individual. The boy with an index of 9/10 
ought to be induced to do 9/10 of his algebra, language, 
science (any study) with a real mastery. By the same 
token, the girl with an index of 13/10 should be re- 
warded for a corresponding achievement with nothing 
short of 13/10 of her algebra, language, science, or any 
other study. In spite of any assumptions about native 
capacity, society will probably continue to reward the 
individual who uses his "talent," be it one, two, or 
five. 

I have had especially in mind upper-grade and high 
school teaching in this discussion. Parents who par- 
ticipate so generously in assisting their children. in 
getting the lessons assigned by teachers may well be 
interested. The improvement of teaching is held to 
be imperative in the inspiriting task of securing ade- 
quate schooling for the youth of the nation. While 
the discussion is centred about the problems of educa- 
tion in the Junior and Senior High School, Normal 
Schools and Colleges of Education will no doubt be 
vitally interested in the issues presented and discussed. 
Institutions for the training of teachers are now in a 



PREFACE vii 

strategic position to direct in productive ways the 
movements for supervised study, co-operative learn- 
ing, project-teaching, measurements of education, learn- 
ing for mastery, and creativeness in thinking. All 
these movements come to a focus in the habits of work 
which boys and girls are developing. 

The task of education, as I see it, is the production of 
a people capable of thinking, and with a mental attitude 
which is tolerant, fearlessly honest, expectant of change, 
and creative. We need a mind capable of analyzing 
problems in the light of facts. The High School age is 
full of possibilities for the development of this proposi- 
tion. In fact, if curiosity were not throttled, this view 
might be accepted as thoroughly sound in every stage 
of education. 

We make the individual. Our public educational 
institutions are not certifying agencies, maintained to 
select the "called and chosen." The more hopeful 
view is that democratic education is concerned with 
the production of desirable changes and the prevention 
of undesirable habits in all individuals. The great 
teacher is the one able to stimulate curiosity, to foster 
interest in the search for knowledge, and to develop 
enthusiasm for the challenge of a problem. To guide 
mental life is the supreme work of the real teacher. 
Not the least significant factor in the development of 
a new general method, if it is to be a major achieve- 
ment, will be the removal of inhibitions to learning. 

To a very large number of my colleagues and 
other good teachers who have assisted me in working 
out illustrative procedures and in developing many 



viii PREFACE 

phases of the thesis presented in this book I am tinder 
lasting obligations. To Dr. F. M. McMurry, whose 
book, "How to Study and Teaching How to Study," 
has been a constant challenge for more than a decade, 
I am indebted in a very direct sense. - He suggested 
thinking periods, as a substitute for recitation periods. 
We ought to be prepared now for the change. 

H. L. M. 



CONTENTS 

CHAPTEtt PAGE 

I. A Manual of Suggestive Procedures . . i 

II. Administration of Directing Study . . 59 

III. The Learning Process ...'..'. 90 

IV. Organizing Principles and Differentials 144 
V. The Development of the Work Spirit . 173 

VI. Application of the Social Principle . . 214 

VII. Initiative and Authority 247 

VIII. Successes and Failures in School Work . 281 

LX. A Shift of Emphasis 308 

Suggestive Helps and Problems for Teach- 
ers in Using This Book 353 

Definition and Use of Terms .... 367 

Index 373 



DIRECTING STUDY 

CHAPTER I 
A MANUAL OF SUGGESTIVE PROCEDURES 

Most parents send their children to school in the 
expectation that the teacher is in possession of some- 
thing which is to be passed on or over to the pupils. 
The majority of students attend lectures with the 
same notion, and go to books to get what the author has 
to say. The emphasis in the use of text-books is too 
often along these same lines of absorption of subject- 
matter. School architecture betrays a philosophy of 
education; the furniture is arranged with a view to 
instillation. The devotion to "learning" as the ac- 
ceptance of facts is remarkable in this age of scientific 
questing. The learner is almost universally regarded 
as a recipient. Communicated facts, all along the 
line — in mere telling, in reading the book, in listening 
to explanation, in sitting before the moving-picture — 
constitute the essential basis of "learning." 

In the proposed procedure, not less, but vastly 
greater, use will be made of communicated facts. The 
situation to be avoided is a mass of unleavened dough. 
What we need to do is to see to it that the salt has not 
lost its savor. Enough should be done in the field of 
self-discovered facts to hold in solution the great mass 
of communicated material; enough work in self-dis- 

1 



2 DIRECTING STUDY 

covery to create a genuine taste for analysis and to 
develop appreciation of man's task in building our 
civilization. 

A taught me mathematics [or any other thing for that] too 
often means that A instilled into me some of the knowledge 
he possessed, that he inoculated me with it. Surely that is 
superficial and erroneous. The fundamental truth is that he 
put me en rapport with mathematical processes, and such 
success as was attained is properly described as my adjustment 
to this quantitative aspect of reality and that of it to me. The 
adjustment was not of me and him, but of me and this depart- 
ment of truth. And the issue is vital. For we all know that 
A is sometimes so imbued with the conception of instillation 
that he is a positive hindrance to adjustment, well meaning 
and enthusiastic though he may be.* 

Montessori has made an invaluable contribution to 
procedure for creative thinking. The child is brought 
into vital relations with his problem. The form- 
board, for example, is the subject-matter. The prisms 
and cylinders of different sizes and the arrangement of 
moulds into which these may be fitted constitute a 
major part of the controlled environment. The child 
faces his problem with something to do. If he places 
the blocks in their respective moulds without difficulty, 
then there is no challenge to thinking. Or, to put it 
in another way, if there is no "fumbling and success," 
no thinking will be initiated. With Dewey, mind is 
the instrument by which we overcome obstacles and 
thinking takes place only when action is checked. If the 
child comes to the placement of the last block — 
prism or cylinder — and finds the form into which he 
tries to place it too small, he is at once confronted 
* Adamson, The Individual and the Environment, p. 28. 



A MANUAL OF SUGGESTIVE PROCEDURES 3 

with a real problem. What has been done must be 
reconsidered. He may see at a glance that some 
piece has been placed in a form too large for it; he may 
have "to throw down the type," as it were, and start 
all over, not once, but many times. In this situation 
the business of the teacher is to watch with an Emer- 
sonian respect. 

But the old education is impatient with watching. 
The teacher or the book steps in and tells the child 
just what to do, or actually does it for him. The 
institutional teacher rearranges the pieces on the child's 
form-board and shows the child how easy it is (for him 
— the schoolmaster). As hopefully expect the child to 
learn to lace his own shoes by doing it for him everlast- 
ingly, as to expect mastery and creative thinking as a 
positive outcome of our conventional practices. Even 
the questions (so-called), intended to guide the pupil in 
a learning situation, are so framed as to disclose the 
answers, thereby destroying the basis for creative think- 
ing. 

The exponents of efficiency in education will urge 
the necessity of economy and "results." It will be 
shown that we do not have time to wait on the child's 
procedure of "fumbling and success." Perhaps all 
we need to say in this connection now is to suggest 
that any move on the part of a teacher in the pupil's 
dilemma in a learning situation should not check- 
mate the pupil. In the interests of economy a par- 
ticular stumbling-block may be removed. The aim 
should be to assist the learner to further effort in the 
solution of his problem. We shall attempt to indicate 
in these illustrative procedures that where there is no 
problem there is no thinking. 



4 DIRECTING STUDY 

For the past five years a class in Plant Life (9th and 
10th grade Agriculture) in the University of Wisconsin 
High School has been conducted under geared-up 
Montessori principles and in accord with the procedure 
suggested in Exercise I, page 6. The materials of the 
course were set out in concrete forms and the question 
as a factor of control was used with rare skill. 

In every subject the materials of instruction should 
be so fabricated as to enable the pupil to check up his 
thinking. The objective means of checking up one's 
work will not be so evident in all subject-matter as is the 
case in the form-board; yet there are unrealized possi- 
bilities of organization of both subject-matter and 
procedure to this end. Much of the lack of intelli- 
gence in school and college is due to lack of necessity 
for rigid intellectual discipline and a definite responsi- 
bility for whatever thinking goes on. The professions 
of education and medicine may yield to the profession 
of engineering in the following vivid and rather severe, 
perhaps unfair, contrast: 

Fortunately for us, most diseases are self-eliminating. But 
it is natural for the physician to turn this dispensation of nature 
to his advantage and to intimate that he has cured John Smith, 
when actually Nature has done the trick. On the contrary, 
should John Smith die, the good doctor can assume a pious 
expression and suggest that, despite his own incredible skill 
and tremendous effort, it was God's (or Nature's) will that 
John should pass beyond. Now the engineer is open to no such 
temptation. He builds a bridge or erects a building, and dis- 
aster is sure to follow any misstep in calculation or fault of 
construction. Should such a calamity occur, he is presently 
discredited and disappears from view. Thus he is held up to 
a high mark of intellectual rigor and discipline that is utterly 
unknown in the world the doctor [or the teacher] inhabits. 
(Civilization in the United States, p. 455.) 



A MANUAL OF SUGGESTIVE PROCEDURES 5 

It is maintained that engineers head the list in in- 
telligence, being rated 60 per cent higher than doctors. 
The rating of doctors above (or below) teachers is not 
disclosed, nor is it to be assumed that the work of 
teachers can be checked up with such exactness as 
that of the engineer. Nevertheless, the position is 
maintained that the profession of teaching may be 
made a challenge to intellectual rigor and discipline 
comparable to the challenge that comes to the engi- 
neer. This high ground is not to be reached by me- 
chanical methods, by dismissing John Smith from the 
class or school, by burying curiosity alive, nor by any 
presuppositions about God's (or Nature's) will to the 
effect that John can't learn it. With the engineer we 
need to cultivate the courage and develop the tech- 
nic to build bridges in the face of self-created obstacles. 

It is perfectly possible to become so obsessed by the 
instruments of education as to inhibit vital learning. 
The specialist and the pedant are both open to this 
danger. The former tends to lead the pupil who is not 
so tall as a rule into the narrow channel of speciali- 
zation or within high protective tariff (pedagogical) 
boundaries, and too often suffocates him among the 
dust of detail, for the specialist is still able to see be- 
yond the narrow margins of detail and catch some- 
thing of the meaning of making the detail a witness 
to a great and universal significance. The pedant, on 
the other hand, too often superimposes subject-matter, 
method, problem, "project," leaving the pupil an ever- 
lasting minor. All of this is a disregard of the demo- 
cratic ideal in procedure. The consent of the governed 
is denied. We want to indicate in these suggestive 
procedures a life basis, a plan of participation, a means 



6 DIRECTING STUDY 

of a shared life, a kind of mutuality in which the pupil 
becomes a partner in a developing subject and in a 
self-realizing, self-originating plan. The hope is that 
even greater levy on facts, information, and data (ac- 
credited subject-matter) will be made than is possible 
in the recitation system or the lecture method. 

Many suggestions in directing procedure for creative 
thinking have been incorporated in the discussion. 
The reader may loop them up in this connection as he 
chooses. 



For point of departure. (This exercise is of inesti- 
mable value for all teachers, including parents, from 
the kindergarten to the graduate school.) The build- 
ing (creation) of any story will serve the purpose here. 
The aim is to furnish the mind with something to work 
on with a real question in front of some potential answer. 

Bill (seven or eight years of age). "One time there 
was a man left on an island all alone." (More data 
may be furnished if the experiment calls for further 
facts, such as: in this man's home there was a picture 
of a ship, or this man's father was a captain, etc.) 
Now, raise the question. "How did this man come to 
be left on the island ? " Bill will find a solution. 

Bear in mind, the old education would have the 
learner read the story and reproduce it, or the learner 
would be told the story (answer) and asked to repeat 
it. In the quest for creative thinking the child works 
out his own story, recreates the story within a con- 
trolled environment. The new teacher furnishes the 
mind with something to think with. 

Bill (further on in the challenge). "One day your 



A MANUAL OF SUGGESTIVE PROCEDURES 7 

Robinson Crusoe got sick. What could you do in your 
own home that your Robinson Crusoe could not do? 
What would your Robinson Crusoe do?" Bill will 
work it out. 

The text of Defoe's Robinson Crusoe may be used 
after raising productive questions in the minds of our 
boys and girls. The teacher knows the standard story. 
His task is to think it in terms of challenges, and 
then to set forth data which will stimulate curiosity, 
and cunningly put a question which the data suggest. 
All of the text material may be aligned ("covered") 
in this procedure after the challenging questions are 
raised, and the creative genius of the boys and girls is 
given a chance to express itself. 

The leit-motif of all history is suggested in this plan 
of approach. The time may come when history up 
through the high school will be studied with a view to 
building minds capable of analyzing problems in the 
light of facts. 

II 

Social Studies and Science 

For any year of the junior or senior high school. (The 
college needs it.) Data. Radio work. Wave-lengths 
(bands) in the air. Broadcasting news. A committee 
of radio experts of many nations sitting in Paris. 
The experts proposed that specific wave-lengths of high 
frequency be allocated (assigned) to each nation. 

Questions. — Why? Any bearing on a League of 
Nations ? 

Procedure. — Pupils (including girls) do not need to 
be assigned readings in order to answer intelligently 



8 DIRECTING STUDY 

these questions. They may be presented the data and 
at once try their wings on the questions. First, dis- 
cussion in terms of experience and broadcasted knowledge 
among youngsters to-day and then readings followed 
by a productively written chapter on "The Relation 
of Science to Modern Life," or "The Development 
of Radio." 

This experiment was carried out in a large class of 
ioth-grade pupils and incidentally tried out on a half- 
dozen college seniors (men) . The latter failed ignomini- 
ously. They appeared dazed. They had been cor- 
rupted to the very roots under the doctrine of "learn- 
ing" as the acceptance of facts, and before the data 
and questions they appeared helpless. They could 
have taken notes on a lecture or read assignments, and 
they could, no doubt, have reproduced and recited with 
rare brilliancy. The boys and girls were alert to the 
questions in the light of the data presented. One little 
girl said: "The nations will have to agree on a distribu- 
tion of wave-lengths, or else all news will be broad- 
casted, and then there would be no secrets. Nations 
would have to behave." A boy said: "The fact of 
getting together and agreeing to assign each nation 
a particular set of wave-lengths would mean unity." 
Another with a free mind at work said: "Each govern- 
ment would have a machine tuned for each nation and 
would catch any messages sent from one to another, 
but the governments would agree not to broadcast 
each other's private affairs," etc. (The discussion 
would have been illuminating to our statesmen.) 



A MANUAL OF SUGGESTIVE PROCEDURES 9 



III 

For Any Grade above jtr and below the 17TH 

For "substance of doctrine" as well as a realizable 
procedure in any school. 

Problem (or challenge). — The development of a scientific 
(experimental) attitude. Data. Two characters repre- 
senting : 



(a) The "Old World" 
Key. "Old World" is closed. 

Things are fixed. 
"Nobody ever did it, there- 
fore it can't be done." 



(6) The "New World" 
"New World" is open, ex- 
pectant of change, crea- 
tive. 
"So he buckled in with a bit 
of a grin at what could not 
be done, and he did it." 
(In this experiment a pupil 
in the class found a poem and 
boiled it down to this. He was 
stimulated by the Old World 
motto.) 
Procedure. 

(a) Now let Aristotle and Sophocles debate with 
Burbank and Edison. (St. Augustine and Luther 
might be induced to debate with Bacon and Darwin. 
A dramatized debate for adolescents is usually a spirited 
event and elicits the best in the debaters.) The pupils 
(10th grade or later) will be able to write (create) a 
play in which these men are the leading characters. 
They may summon other characters to speak. This 
was done. The "New World" may have a slave out 
of the Old World to portray his life; a woman may also 
be summoned to relate her lot. One girl in working 
up such a play proposed that she be a fairy and have the 
boy of the class interested in science become a wizard. 



10 



DIRECTING STUDY 



(The fairy played the part of "Looking Backward" 
from 1950. The play as well as the debate has proved 
valuable and interesting.) 

An enormous amount of "accredited" subject-matter 
can be looped up in both the production of the debate 
and the creation of the play. 



(b) Data for another part of 
the challenge 

The "Old World" says: 

"The acorn can grow only into 
the oak." 

"Wild oats can grow only into 
wild oats." 

"The boy grows up into the 
man, and the boy can 
become only what his 
heredity makes him." 



(c) Data (once more) 
The genius is born, not made, 
says the "Old World." 
Talent is donated. Hence 
there must always be 
"those who" can and 
"those who" can't do it. 



The "New World" answers: 
"New species can be developed 
by man." Burbank tells 
us a lot of interesting 
things. 
(The pupils work this out.) 
Mr. Edison, what is your an- 
swer to the "Old World" 
here, when "they say": 
"We have always had 
candles and they make the 
best light ever"? 
(Let the pupils work all this 
out. It can be done in dis- 
cussion, through reading and 
discussion, through film and 
written reactions, through de- 
bate, through dramatic repre- 
sentation, through writing a 
chapter in a creative book 
made by the pupils them- 
selves.) 

How is the "New World" going 
to answer now? 
(Any live class will be ready 

for a thrilling debate. If so, 

let it be negotiated.) 

Do we make the individual in 
the "New World"? How? 

What is the purpose of educa- 
tion ? 



A MANUAL OF SUGGESTIVE PROCEDURES 11 



(<*) 



Do you think 
World" has a 
date period? 



the "Old 
name-and- 



(e) The "Old World" says: 
"We have always had 
war and we always will." 

Are arts, science, music, archi- 
tecture, literature nation- 
ally bounded any longer? 



Do you think there are any 
"folks" living in the 20th 
century who really have 
minds and entertain ideas 
belonging to the $th, 14th, 
or 17th century? 

What is the "New World's" 
answer? 

(A good time to examine the 
history of international agree- 
ments and co-operations in 
exhibitions, congresses, Postal 
Union, Red Cross work, and 
League of Nations.) 



(/) For pupils in the senior high school (and the 
college) the possibilities and unifying effects of inter- 
national insurance and the world-wide extension and 
application of the Federal Reserve Bank may be dis- 
cussed and worked up into original (creative) chapters. 
It is wholly superfluous to add that an infinitely greater 
amount of information will be required in this problem- 
procedure than is possible under the cut-and-dried 
lecture system and lesson-assigning, lesson-hearing 
school where all march in regimental uniformity. 

The time to be allotted to this exercise (III) is 
left to the discretion of the school and its new teacher. 
There is easily a whole semester's work suggested here 
for a class in Social Science. Many transmissions ahead 
are possible in problems of this kind. One week spent 
in experimental questing along lines suggested in this 
exercise has proved a profitable venture, not only in 
senior high-school science and social studies, but also 
for students (college seniors) preparing to teach. In 



12 DIRECTING STUDY 

any case it is well to have the students construct a 
chapter on some such topic as the "Development of 
Modern Science." 

IV 

For 6th or jth Grade 

Challenge. — The fraction operating in the equation. 
(One of a few outstanding principles to be mastered.) 

Exercise. — %, or %, or %, or %, or % l} or y 2 , or %, or *% of 
my money is $100. How much have I in each case ? 

Procedure. — (Intended to clarify the principle in- 
volved.) 

Working Materials. — (If the first day of school, let 
the teacher be provided with a pocketful of pencils 
and plenty of scratch paper prepared to start work 
at once; keep every youngster so busy that no time is 
available for "fooling.") 

If jour dogs cost $100, what will five dogs cost? 
(Work it out orally, finding cost of one dog first and 
then five dogs.) 

Now express it thus: 

-r^— = $ioo 
dogs 

-t— = — of $ioo = $25 
dog 4 

•~- = S X $25 = $i2S 
dogs 

Again. If four-fifths of my money, etc., *. e., substi- 
tute fifths for dogs. (Subsequently substitute for dogs 
(the denominator) thirds, sevenths, thirteenths, elevenths, 
half, halves, sixths.) 



A MANUAL OF SUGGESTIVE PROCEDURES 13 
Now express it thus: 

(of my m.) = $100 



fifths 



rrr (of my m.) must equal (?) 
liitn 



Finally express it: 

— (of my m.) = $100 
5 

— (of my m.) - (?) 

| (of my m.) = (?) 

(There will be need of clarifying the idea of unity.) 

Above all, see to it that dogs and fifths are denomi- 
nators. (Teachers, I pray you, dwell on the meaning 
of denominator.) 

Before using the exercises in the book the pupils 
should make up their own exercises for two or three 
days, using all sorts of imagery in the denominators 
employed. 

Swinging out into a new challenge with a clearing 
up of the fundamental principle involved, using simple, 
vivid, illustrative material to exemplify the principle, 
ought to bring pupils into a better and a more abiding 
understanding of mathematical reality than is exhibited 
in the endless working of sets of "problems" by formu- 
las, or ready-made patterns. 



Challenge. — A set of exercises in arithmetic, algebra, a foreign 
language, or any other subject in which a number of exercises 
in some organizing principle is clearly presented. To illustrate: 



14 DIRECTING STUDY 

Factoring in algebra (8th or 9th grade) is the unifying core of 
a part of the course. After five minutes of general explanation 
of a new phase of factoring in which the whole class participated, 
each pupil started into the set of exercises and worked as rapidly 
as possible. The teacher checked results, guided procedures, 
explained to any one pupil or group of pupils some principle 
needing further elucidation, called the whole class to concerted 
attention when any fundamental concept could be focussed 
upon economically. The exercises in this illustration involved 
the differences of squares. Some 60 exercises were listed. In 
the course of the remainder of the class period the number of 
exercises mastered ranged from 10 to 55. No upper limit was 
set. Each pupil worked forward in the challenge at his own best 
rate. 

In a class in geometry, 36 pupils all started at the beginning 
of a 70-minute class period on a set of 19 original exercises listed 
at the close of the book on the circle (Wells and Hart). The 
pupils worked in pairs at the board. Their work was checked 
as rapidly as enough proof was given to indicate mastery. 
Five pupils who began 10 minutes before the class period for- 
mally began completed the entire set during the class period. 
The range was all the way from a mastery of 3 exercises to 19 
exercises. The teacher was kept busy checking results and 
suggesting modes of attack to pupils in difficulty. The two 
boys who finished the entire set 15 minutes before the period 
was up assisted the teacher in this work. 

The same procedure may be employed in word study, work 
on sentences, reading of literature of a type or period, composi- 
tion, exercises in foreign language, etc. 

Two important matters should be mentioned in this connec- 
tion: (1) The organizing principle should be clear. (2) No 
upper limit should be set in the number of exercises. Enough 
work should be at hand to challenge every ability in the class 
group. It is not a uniformity that is sought in true education. 
The unity (not uniformity) is gained by all those co-operations 
which evolve out of a challenge clearly distinguished as to 
some organizing principles and a progressive series of exercises 
within the gripping principles. 



A MANUAL OF SUGGESTIVE PROCEDURES 15 



VI 

ioth Grade (Mathematics: Core — Demonstrative 

Geometry) 

Challenge. — The Circle. (The material, the best modern 
texts — Book II.) 

Procedure. — (The procedure in this illustration is based upon 
the work of a class of thirty-eight pupils of very wide ranges of 
"capacity" and achievement. In fact, a conspicuous minority 
of this class had been tried and found wanting — pronounced 
to be, if not "mathematical idiots," at least mathematically 
disinclined or obsessed by defense mechanisms. One purpose 
in the experiment was the attempt to demonstrate the feasi- 
bility of managing a large section with extremes of "ability" 
and attainment, well known at the outset.) 

(a) When the challenge was entered upon, a word was men- 
tioned about the assignment. The assignment was the circle. 
For a period of five or six weeks nothing was said about assign- 
ment. No daily assignment was mentioned. The individual 
pupils who needed stimulus were operated on as they needed it. 

(b) The class period (70 minutes) was developed into a work 
period. This class period has never proved too long — always 
too short. Work begun in class was continued out of class 
largely upon the initiative of the pupils. Saturday mornings 
were employed for clinic purposes for any pupils who for any 
reason (absence mainly) did not make satisfactory progress. 
Four hours on the job, steady, makes a difference in any strug- 
gling pupil. (See Chapter II, p. 71.) 

(c) The challenge (the circle) is the organizing principle, 
and the exercises and propositions furnish the differentials. 
(See Chapter IV.) The big challenge was broken up into four 
or five major organizing principles around which and with which 
discussion could be carried on in a profitable manner. Recita- 
tion work, as we ordinarily find it, was deleted. 

The following organizing means were employed as principles 
to think with: 

1. A radius perpendicular to a chord. 

2. A radius drawn to a tangent at point of contact. 



16 DIRECTING STUDY 

3. Measuring angles. Angles measured by the same number 

of arc degrees. 

4. Parallels intercepting equal arcs. 

5. Loci problems — a few clarifying principles. 

These, or some aspects of them, were written on the board 
from time to time to guide the thinking of the pupils. 

(d) No effort was made to keep the class together. Goal 
ends were mentioned from time to time. " Now, don't you think 
we had better be prepared to discuss measuring angles next 
Monday?" Or, "Would it not be a good idea for you to have 
mastered our challenge by next Saturday night before 10 o'clock, 
so that we can all start on loci problems one week from to-day ? " 
No two pupils were ever found at the same place in any part of 
the challenge. Responsibility was sought in many ways. The 
great majority of pupils in a working laboratory do not need to 
be prodded and supported in their work. After working into 
some part of the challenge, after mastering some of the work- 
ing tools, and after learning the game, as it were, by individual 
guidance and checking of results, the whole class enter into 
vigorous discussion and snappy response to rapid-fire questions. 

The aim in this work procedure is to bring the whole class to a 
concerted "attention" only when some organizing principle can 
be economically cleared up for all members of the class by a 
single drive, or when enough work has been accomplished in a 
given part of the big challenge to make a class discussion profita- 
ble for (practically) every member of the class, because every 
one has actually turned out some work of his own in the part of 
the challenge under discussion, or (concerted attention) when the 
aim is gripped up in the contest or game spirit, wherein it be- 
comes a matter of vigorous rivalry among individuals or between 
groups in which true sportsmanship sweetens the competition 
of life. 

(e) In the procedure individual achievement is focal. Out of 
individual activity class co-operations are developed. Partner- 
ship teaching is employed. There must be no lesion of the 
social sense in this drive for individual mastery and responsi- 
bility. For one very important type of teacher-activity in this 
work period, the reader is directed to Chapter IV, p. 120 jf. It 
will be recalled that the teacher is now a directing genius, never 
sitting apart engaged in any sort of busy aimlessness, such as 



A MANUAL OF SUGGESTIVE PROCEDURES 17 

occupying the furtive pulpit in a supervisory capacity, correct- 
ing papers, visiting somebody who comes to "see" the imponder- 
ables. The new teacher is first of all master in the challenge, 
ready to give a hint in any part of it. For some pupils will be 
plunging ahead; others will bring in new material. A live class 
will require a teacher alert in many directions. 

Referring again to Chapter III, let us examine the teacher's 
task at the point of the learner's real difficulty. This is no cram- 
ming, memorizing school now. We are not interested in de- 
veloping the mirror-minded pupil. That can be done. Tens of 
thousands of pupils have absorbed enough geometry to pass it. 
They have pursued it with no confident hope of overtaking it. 

The habit of writing on a pad just what the consulting expert 
(the new teacher) says to each pupil (or group of pupils — two 
or more) at the fork of the road in the dilemma which each pupil 
sets forth — that habit is stressed because we feel sure that 
teachers talk too much. They have so much to impart ! 

"What are your data ? State each point in your hypothesis." 

"Draw your figure with your instruments." 

"Trace the angle with your finger as you read it." 

"Where is the vertex of an inscribed angle?" 

"Express the arc degrees. 360 — arc AC. Now try it." 

"Make sure of your proposition here." 

"Which way do you think the author intended to solve this 
one?" 

"Look at the board. Angles are equal if " 

"You need a plan, don't you?" 

"Have you examined all the facts in your hypothesis?" 

"Oh, but is that a central angle?" 

"Talk to your figure." 

"Have you used all your hypothesis?" 

There is no end to this kind of personal, intimate suggestion 
with a group of pupils at work in a challenge with no upper 
limit for any one. These directing hints are given to the pupil 
in his puzzled state, to two or more pupils working at the board 
together, to the whole class now and again. 

The highest achievement is to develop minds capable of analyzing 
Problems in the light of facts. This procedure is aimed at that 
goal in every stage of its development. 

Work is done in note-books and checked. Not all exercises 



18 DIRECTING STUDY 

are written out in full by every pupil. Some work is checked 
from the blackboard. Oral explanation is accepted in many 
instances. Often a clear-headed pupil may simply schematize 
the proof for the teacher. Pupils rising to their mathematical 
heritage "as if to the manner born" (always by hard work, 
for any "talent" here is a task) are given the privilege of assist- 
ing the teacher in checking work which is being turned off at 
high speed — a thing which happens very frequently when pupils 
get their "second wind" in the challenge. 

No contribution, in my judgment, to better teaching and 
thinking has been made than the introduction of the idea of 
having the pupil work with a plan in mind. (Mr. Hart, Uni- 
versity of Wisconsin, has made this procedure perfectly clear.) 
In reality it is the essence of the scientific mode of thinking. 
The goal (conclusion) is set out; it is the city yonder toward 
which the road is to be built. Too often the learner is allowed 
to think that the road determines the direction of the city. Not 
so. The city determines the general direction of the road. 
The particular, immediate direction the road takes at any given 
time in its construction is influenced by circumstances. No 
matter, if, for the nonce, the road seems to be veering off to the 
right or left, or, for that, directly opposite from the city (goal) — 
provided only, the city is in the surveyor's mind as the objective. 
The pupil in a situation in which creative (scientific) thinking 
is possible ought to be given this rare privilege of building his 
road to the city. He is both the surveyor and builder. 

So, to every pupil in this work procedure: "What is your goal 
in this and that part of the challenge?" Now: "What is your 
plan, your (intellectual) method, by which you expect to build 
the road toward your city?" The consulting expert (the new 
teacher) will understand the significance of circumstances which 
deflect the mind of the pupil from an air-line construction of the 
road to the city. "Try it. It may work." "Make the ad- 
venture. You may find that your plan will lay golden eggs for 
you." Such remarks are not idle. They may prove to be 
cncouragers. These builders need many encouragers along the 
way. Judicious praise should not be spared. 

(/) In the various forms of concerted classroom activity, 
the reader is again directed to Chapter III. One thing more 



A MANUAL OF SUGGESTIVE PROCEDURES 19 

seems fruitful. The uses that may be made of the half- 
dozen, or more, very difficult original exercises in the challenge 
on the circle have not been exhausted. They furnish excellent 
material for the emerging masters of the challenge in the class. 
It is a refreshing, exhilarating emotion to hear high-school boys 
and girls say : "I spent four, six, or eight hours on that exercise, 
and I'm going to get it." That is a shocking thing to hear in 
these days of "soft" pedagogy and the process of "painless" 
information and "movieized" education! 

An additional use of the most difficult original exercises is 
suggested. (Four pupils in the experiment on the circle had 
emerged triumphant at a certain station in the journey. In 
the old rural school they could have been sent to the spring a 
half-mile away to carry the pail of water to their thirsty class- 
mates — one of the real boons in that old school, and, by the 
way, an excellent device for getting rid of "bright" pupils for 
a weary hour.) These four pupils, who had mastered a certain 
set of supplementary exercises, were given a chance during the 
class period on this day to draw a big circle on a piece of paper 
and to put into that circle all manner of lines. The chart was 
exhibited, and the pupils were challenged to formulate as many 
conclusions from the complicated figure as possible. More than 
fifty were suggested — an excellent review, by the way. 

Now, with these four out of the way, and protected against 
being bored, let us suggest the additional use of the very difficult 
exercise. 

"All of you, let us draw a circle." "Read carefully exercise 
so and so." Inscribed hexagon, not a regular one. "What 
data (facts) are given?" Two pairs of opposite sides are 
parallel. Conclusion — The two remaining sides are parallel. 

Now for a plan. (All working on this exercise, except the 
four who have it.) 

"How do we prove lines parallel?" 

"We have a right to do anything we choose or will to our 
figure." 

A diagonal is hit upon. The plan is set forth. Pupils dis- 
cover it themselves. 

"Keeping the plan (blueprint) before you, let's work by it." 

"Examine every item in your hypothesis." (Each pupil, 
on his own mark now, writes all he can, using his hypothesis.) 



20 DIRECTING STUDY 

Certain arcs are found to be equal by using the given facts. 

"Angles may be proven equal. How?" (Perhaps all the 
ways previously developed will be proposed. Here is the 
teacher's opportunity to ask what the author perhaps had in 
mind in this exercise. So, it may be necessary to point to one 
of the organizing principles in the challenge — just a physical 
gesture — to measuring angles, etc.) 

The rest of the solution is a manipulation of equations, and 
it is necessary, it seems, to give a short class drill on handling 
simple equations. 

In this concerted class work it is important to impress this 
point : "William, are you paying attention ? " "Yes," he replies. 
"Then quit itl" Yea, verily, quit it. It is highly probable 
that the habit of "paying attention" is from the medulla 
oblongata down, not up. The drive of attention forward into 
new difficulties at the point of crisis calls for eternal teaching 
vigilance. 

We have used a very difficult original exercise as a means of 
clarifying the use of data (given) in developing a plan (or intel- 
lectual method) of attack. 

The most difficult exercise may be utilized also as a basis of 
review — a thoroughly sound practice in which the simpler 
elements are caught up in a new synthesis. 

The so-called "bright" or "clever" pupils (always emerging 
in and through work) are not required to listen to what they 
know perfectly well. They can refine their thinking by partici- 
pating in the development of a technic of attack. They enjoy 
working out "the rules of the game." 

The "poorer" thinkers in the class have not suffered. They 
have something to reach up to. It is not a confusing situation 
to them. They may not have been able unaided to solve the 
exercise. That is, in this point of view, a secondary considera- 
tion. The difficult exercise has been used to the benefit of the 
entire class. Every individual in the group has found in it 
something worth while. 

(g) Observations. — (i) Out of the last point, first: Is it not a 
futile cry to try to determine the native capacity of pupils 
ready (for one reason or another) for the great adventure (into 
geometry, physics, Latin, agriculture, what not), and thereupon 
to classify alleged abilities? This class of thirty-eight boys 



A MANUAL OF SUGGESTIVE PROCEDURES 21 

and girls exhibited as far-reaching differences in achievement as 
could be found in any group. No one was held back because 
of a "mentally delayed" classmate. The circle is big enough 
and flexible enough for a challenge to every ability. The circle 
is a function of the radius. A "short radius" can describe a 
complete circle; a "longer radius" can describe a complete circle; 
a "very long radius" can describe a complete circle. The big 
circle is not scandalized by being associated with the little cir- 
cle. The small circle need not be humiliated by a big one. Two 
essential matters emerge. The circle offers the unifying, organ- 
izing principle; all sorts of transmissions ahead are provided in 
the endless variety of materials utilized in the challenge. No 
two radii need to be the same length except in the same or equal 
circles. No two individuals could conceivably be the same; no 
two individuals could possibly have identical environmental fac- 
tors. In fact, two children in the same home may receive from 
their father diametrically opposite training. We are in dire need 
of a careful social diagnosis in our efforts to appraise the reactions 
of pupils to tests of all kinds. It is supererogation to add that 
the "radius" is not a constant in the same individual. 

The silly administrative twaddle we are hearing these days, 
to the effect that there are those who cannot learn geometry, 
and that there are those who can do no more than memorize a 
few propositions with a full demonstration included, is only 
another method of dodging responsibility. To parade now in 
the "livery of science" by classifying our potential mathema- 
ticians, physicists, etc., in terms of their I. Q.'s (intelligence 
quotients) is evidence of another good idea done to death by 
educators having a penchant for fads. It is ridiculous to main- 
tain that the boy with an I. Q. of 77.77 cannot profit by a study 
of geometry (or any other study for that). 

(2) It may be urged that the "poorer" pupils in this class 
are unduly tempted when taken up into the high mountains — 
the high peaks of the difficult original exercise. The objectors 
and doubting Thomases are perhaps influenced by the Biblical 
account of his Satanic Majesty and the temptation scene, but we 
hasten to assure them that ours is only a decided leaning toward 
"prescribed" temptations to excellence. The "poorest" pupil in 
the class needs to be lifted up where he too, now and again, may 
catch something of the vision and perspective of the mountain- 



22 DIRECTING STUDY 

climbers. What he does on his "level" will soon begin to take 
on a new significance by the fact of having caught a glimpse of 
higher reaches, even though assisted in the climbing. 

(3) Chapter IV is illustrated in this challenge. The organ- 
izing principles and differentials are admirably delineated. 
Provision is made for individual differences. No minimum 
essential is ever allowed to degenerate into a maximum necessity. 

(4) A group mediocrity is not desired. In fact, the more 
highly selected the class group the greater the possible ranges of 
achievement. Endless differentiation is possible where endeavor 
is negotiated on a life basis. If anybody actually wanted a 
bona-fide regimental uniformity in things intellectual, moral, and 
spiritual, the way to get it is to assemble for the study of ge- 
ometry a class of functionally near-imbeciles. There would be, 
no doubt, a high degree of uniformity in such a group. It is not, 
however, essential to have approximate equality of "capacity" 
in any normal group for the pursuit of any subject in the cur- 
riculum. 

(5) Testing for mastery may be conceived in many ways. 
In this class the challenge was closed (never finished) with all 
on their marks for a class period, writing on as many of some 
dozen parts (exercises) in the big challenge as they could do. 
Twenty-five per cent was given for each one of the twelve 
mastered in the class period. Some pupils earned as high as 
300 per cent. For those who fell below 100 per cent, a Saturday 
morning was set apart for a second or third try-out with all 
the time the pupil in difficulty wanted to use — four hours or 
more. A dozen hands were up to volunteer to coach a class- 
mate in difficulty, preparatory to the Saturday-morning oppor- 
tunity class. The test for mastery in the Saturday-morning 
situation was similar to the one just described. The boy, a 
victim of defense reactions, finally got the belt on his generator 
in a Saturday-morning class after about an hour's fussing the 
spinal cord, and actually got down to hard work and made 
175 per cent in the test for mastery. The new teacher will re- 
fuse to regiment adolescents under time-and-space-efficiency 
methods. The law of chance needs to be distributed more equita- 
bly than happens in any test by the clock under the hammer. 

(6) What we have indicated in this elaborate presentation of 



A MANUAL OF SUGGESTIVE PROCEDURES 23 

six to eight weeks' work on the circle is applicable to almost 
any other subject in the curriculum. The reader is urged to 
note again the illustrative exercises, pp. 120 Jf., 130^., 160 jf., in 
the body of our discussion. To be sure, each course must em- 
ploy its own special technics. There is no general method, 
universally applicable as a method, such as the enthusiasts for 
the "project" level of teaching would seem to imply. 

(7) The tired, the inert, the mechanical teachers (made such 
by the system), and all others who enjoy poor pedagogical health, 
may not have the courage to make the adventure upon the 
challenge procedure. 

(8) "They say": All this could be done if we had teachers of 
dynamic personality. The answer to this honest scepticism is 
by way of analogy. The old practitioner in medicine, let us 
assume, is a wholesome, radiant, dynamic personality — a lova- 
ble man who kisses all the babies in the neighborhood. Across 
the street is a physician-surgeon who has mastered the tech- 
nic of modern medicine. His personality is not particularly 
charming or virile, but he knows modern medicine and surgery. 
To which one is a man going for an operation ? The initial act 
is bound to be far-reaching. The system employed does make 
a tremendous difference. The ideal is a new scientific human- 
ism. 

(9) And "they" will ask: How do you know these thirty- 
eight pupils have done any better than they would have done 
under the recitation system? Frankly we don't know. It is a 
manifest impossibility to compare the same pupils in two different 
systems. We could crawl among the dust of figures, piling up 
the "averages of the averages," and, perhaps, make out a case. 
But we maintain the proposition that the common practice of 
resorting to the popular psychology of arithmetic, believing 
that an argument backed up by cold figures must carry certi- 
tude, is a fallacious practice. It may be mere rationalizing — 
just a method of arraying evidence to support a belief already 
accepted. The essential matter lies deeper. The drive is 
headed up in the direction of building minds capable of analyzing 
problems in the light of facts. The mind, conceived as a truth- 
finding apparatus, is held to be an aim far superior to that of 
making the mind a truth-testing apparatus. It is the difference 



24 DIRECTING STUDY 

between education as a creative, productive process and educa- 
tion as an assimilative, reproductive process. Suffice it to say- 
that these boys and girls took to their work as ducks to water. 
That, also, seems to be a worthy measure of educational prac- 
tices. 

(10) There were no "failures" in this class. The goal set 
for every member of the class was mastery. No primitive fool- 
ishness was entertained about failing 13.3 per cent to make the 
results conform to a "probability curve." In the five or six 
specific challenges within the circle they all finally attained the 
mastery agreed upon in the course, viz.: 100 per cent in each 
challenge by the method described above (5). That was only 
one of many elements entering into a judgment of the pupil's 
power. 

(n) Who is the "poorest" pupil anyhow? The system has 
not been invented, the professor is still unborn, to tell us what 
the "fitness" or "capacity" or "potential" is of whipsters 13, 
14, 15, or 16, "running at large" intellectually, so to speak. 
One of the "poorest" in this class the first six weeks became one 
of the four or five top-notchers before the first half of the year 
was up. He reminded one of an unassembled Ford at first. 
He was given a motto, and he worked it out under vigorous 
social criticism. The motto ran thus: "The thinker finds a 
chairman in the mass-meeting of his mind whose duty it is to 
command all other noisy facts to sit down and be in order. The 
thinker finds some fact to do senatorial duty." This is only a hint 
as to the desperate responsibility the new teacher will assume 
in the task of making the individual, or in seeing to it that he 
actually creates himself by his own activity. It has always been 
easy to dismiss the loose-jointed, chattering adolescent from 
the class and the school. That has been the disposition of 
those interlopers in the profession who think it to be their duty 
to take care of the "called and chosen" — a curious survival in 
this day of democratic ideals and in the light of the cry of the 
adolescent. 

(12) To make an even dozen observations, these pupils did 
not work merely for the sake of the loaves and fishes. There 
was developed a spirit of challenge and a zest for work and a 
joy in achievement. 



A MANUAL OF SUGGESTIVE PROCEDURES 25 

"A pair of compasses, being asked 
why, in order to draw a circle, one 
foot stood and the other moved, replied, 

CONSTANCY AND WORK GO TO- 
GETHER. " 

The underlying principles of procedure in relation 
to subject-matter are discussed in Chapter IV. In- 
stead of emphasizing "minimum essentials" under the 
going machine of assimilation with the conventional 
drive for uniformity, the aim in all these illustrative 
exercises is to find a highest common multiple that 
expresses a community of interests. This position is 
diametrically opposed to current practices in which 
the avowed purpose is to establish a least common 
denominator of social and practical information. 

The circle in the illustration stands for that highest 
common multiple in any working group. The abso- 
lutist in education may contend that the radius of 
any given person is constant. We could agree only 
on the assumption that it is the business of the absolute 
to grow. The essential point in our view has been 
stated. A complete circle can be described with a 
radius of any length, if a centre of constancy is estab- 
lished about which work may be done. This highly 
colorful figure should find its analogue in all courses 
in the curriculum. 

VII 

The new school will aim to delete two major types of 
waste in our classrooms: (a) the waste resulting from 
the recitation of anything perfectly well known by 
any member of the class, or the recitation of things 



26 DIRECTING STUDY 

that are liable to become a bore to members of the 
class expected to pay attention; (b) the waste resulting 
from asking questions which the teacher knows per- 
fectly well the pupil addressed cannot answer. Stating 
the issue constructively, the new school will aim to set 
up an environment in which every pupil has a real job 
during the entire class period. The objective is the 
work spirit. When that objective is clearly worked 
out, pupils are not fatigued in the 70-minute class 
period. Few pupils are overworked. 

Exercise. — Three or four paragraphs were written on the 
board (or mimeographed) without punctuation, capitalization, 
or paragraph arrangement. 

Procedure. — Pupils started at once to rewrite the material, 
fashioning it into good, if not correct, form. The problem or 
task was clear. There was continuity of meaning in the ma- 
terial. The teacher had a chance to become a consulting expert 
while the work was being done. The pupils emerging out of 
the challenge found other work to do. When we organize our 
courses under the problem-case method, there will be found many 
opportunities for taking up "unfinished business" with pupils 
about to "finish their education." No upper limit should be 
set in such exercises. 

In setting out the problem cases in courses of instruction, our 
hope is that a mere bookkeeping procedure may be escaped. 
Chapter IV is intended to be an illumination of a way of escap- 
ing this dilemma. 

It is not necessary to include illustrations of this type of pro- 
cedure. Any teacher can select good material and cast it up 
into this "general frame of reference." 

VIII 

7th Grade, Junior High School, Social Studies 

Challenge. — A study of Alaska and Hawaii. 
Procedure. — Pupils worked up advertisements to show some 
of the possibilities of these countries. A bit of history was in- 



A MANUAL OF SUGGESTIVE PROCEDURES 27 

eluded. In some cases the pupils designed and produced their 
posters together; some were done by individuals working alone. 
The teacher was a consulting expert and a general director. 
Two or three days were given to this work in class. 

Illustrative material, in color at times, was employed, such as 
a drawing of a mountain or volcano, an ocean liner, an oil-derrick. 
There were signs of budding real-estate genius in these posters. 
They were informing; they afforded opportunity for a junc- 
tional review; a basis for the need (social) of correct spelling and 
good (effective) English was laid. In imagination these young- 
sters were selling real estate, promoting interest in travel, 
presenting in attractive forms the productions of these coun- 
tries. 

Review by repetition and mechanical drill was not stressed. 
The posters were displayed. Every pupil had a vivid presenta- 
tion of the leading features (as each conceived it) of the chal- 
lenge. The pupils worked in a "controlled" environment, and 
yet there was effective freedom*} 

Illustrative Posters: 

(i) 

OIL ! ! ! OIL ! ! ! OIL ! ! ! 

Come and Find Out. 

GREAT OIL FIELDS IN ALASKA 

FOR LOW PRICES 

2000 ACRES FOR SALE 

20 acres at $3000 

TAKE THE SEATTLE AND PUGET SOUND 

TRIP. WE PAY YOUR FARE ALL THE WAY. 

SEE GREAT FALLS 

OIL COMPANY 

205 GAY BUILDING. 

— Harry (ii years). 



28 DIRECTING STUDY 

(Harry had spelled Puget Sound, "Pugut," and 
"Youre Fair." The teacher remarked: "Harry, I fear 
you will not sell your lots unless you mend your spell- 
ing a bit." Harry made his own corrections.) 

00 

OFF FOR HAWAII! 

The American South America 

Just sail away, on a certain day 

To the land where the sugar-canes grow, 

Where we'll sell you a lot, you'll be glad you've got, 

In the place where the soft breezes blow. 

2000 

Lots for sale 

Swimming Surf-bathing 

Fine Mountain Scenery 

Where you can raise: 

Sugar, 
Temperature coffee, 

67 pineapples, 

all year Cattle 

round 

IMMENSE BUSINESS OPPORTUNITIES 

Write to Hawaiian Realty Co., Honolulu, Oahu Is. 

— Marjorie (ii years). 

Note. — Why not make this type of work a basis for 
good English expression, instead of seeking to negotiate 
the ritual of themes and the literary canon in the 
conventional way? 



A MANUAL OF SUGGESTIVE PROCEDURES 29 

(3) 

COME TO HONOLULU 

The capital and chief sea-port 

of the 

Hawaiian Islands 

Only 6 to 8 days from San Francisco 

On the best steamship line. 
From Honolulu come to the Pearl 
Harbor Resort. Only a few miles. 
Good swimming and golfing 
And a mild climate 
Not over 67 
Many picturesque trips can be taken 

from the Resort. 

If you want to spend a good winter, 

Write to the 

Pearl Harbor Resort 
Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. 

— Eleanor (12 years). 

IX 

About qth-Grade English 

(The underlying procedure is applicable to any year. Through- 
out the grades and high school some such approach as is illus- 
trated in this exercise is helpful. Upon the introduction of 
technical grammar this procedure may prove suggestive.) 

Exercise or Problem. — Building up the compound-sentence 
idea. 

Procedure. — The approach is developed through the activity of 
the pupil. The notion of independent and dependent clauses 
is skilfully introduced in class discussion by having pupils 
respond in terms of things they are actually doing. They are 



30 DIRECTING STUDY 

induced to make reactions of one sort and another, and then to 
relate their activities in words. When two "independent" 
ideas or actions are hit upon, the analysis is carried forward 
until it is made clear that two full sentences might have been 
employed, instead of one, joined by the conjunction. (By the 
way, the parts of speech can be worked up in vitalizing dramatic 
presentation. A little play was created by the class in this 
account. The noun stands forth and presents his function. 
The pronoun marches out to stand there as a substitute. The 
conjunction performs a marriage ceremony, and the merry- 
making ejaculators make the scene a comedy, etc.) 

The idea of the exercise is developed in class. Definitions 
are avoided for the time being. Written exercises in text- 
books are not used in the early stages. Later they may be used 
for drill purposes caught up in the game or contest. 

The essential matter in this creative procedure in which we 
shall aim to work with prospective intention, rather than retro- 
spective intention and reproduction of ready-made forms, is 
clearly to present the work in a manner that calls for self -activity 
in the building of sentences to illustrate the compound-sentence 
idea. The. same precautions should be taken at any level of 
the child's experience in approaching the conventional or formal 
ways of English expression. This self-creative process should 
precede the practice of picking out sentences from the printed 
page (in context) designed to illustrate the compound-sentence 
idea, or any other grammar idea for that. 

The most difficult task confronting the new teacher at this 
juncture is the home study or out-of-class study or preparation 
of "lessons." The disposition of "helpers" — parents and 
friendly counsellors — is, in almost every case, to pass on or over 
to the pupil a ready-made sentence, either out of a book or out 
of their own construction, just as pieces of pie are passed around 
at the table. It is easy to be filled up with the stuff of lessons. 
It is so easy to engage in trick training (protect the word — edu- 
cation). In almost any subject, the "learner" can be trained 
to respond to signals. Pupils can readily supply themselves 
with an assortment of sentences for the next day, and remain 
wholly innocent of the meaning of what they bring into the class 
under the very common practices of our lesson-hearing schools. 

An illustration will help to make clear the difference here be- 



A MANUAL OF SUGGESTIVE PROCEDURES 31 

tween intelligent home assistance and the corrupting practices 
of "getting lessons." A little boy, twelve years old, apprised his 
relatives at the dinner-table that he was expected to invent 
several sentences for his class next day illustrating the com- 
pound-sentence idea. He was inclined to engage his mind in 
reaching out into space somewhere for his sentences. He was 
trying to recall an image of the printed page where he might 
have seen samples. It is a case of the mind reacting in a memo- 
rizing school, trying to dig up an old movie film out of the rag- 
bag of memory. This little fellow was guided in his dilemma. 
He asked for a piece of bread. His mentor said: "Now, boy, 
just frame up a sentence on the immediate things you are 
doing or are about to do." "Just let your mind run on with 
perfect freedom." This was his sentence: "The bread that I 
want is white and the butter which I wish to spread on it is 
yellow." Before the dinner was over the boy had discovered 
that each member of his own sentence was complex. He dia- 
grammed his sentence and worked out a half-dozen or more in a 
brief time. He built his own sentences out of his activities. 
Another illustration, all his own, in this list was: "The pencil 
(that) I am using is yellow, and the paper which I am writing 
on is white." 

It requires no unique imagery to picture the home in which 
the performances of parents and friends are conducted when 
summoned to help Susan, Dick, Tom, and Mabel in the task of 
getting lessons. The empty vessels are filled. Ready-made 
facts are funnelled into the mind from without. The "lessons" 
are handed in the next day. Teachers waste their time in cor- 
recting the work of tired and confused parents. The value of 
good teaching is nullified. There is need of legislation in the 
nature of " Corrupt Practices Acts" in order to protect the minds 
of pupils, intellectual "Innocents Abroad," against this per- 
nicious system of acceptance of "educational" goods as a free 
gift. The boy across the street in the illustration cited in this 
exercise was corrupted to the very roots, intellectually and 
spiritually, when his mother (a teacher of the old order) passed 
over to her dear boy a full line of ready-made sentences for the 
next day's "lesson." Of course this boy stood up and read his 
fond "mama's" sentences with much gusto. He was being 
victimized by a systematic general indulgence at home. (His 



32 DIRECTING STUDY 

"mama," by the way, took the sentences from an old text-book, 
and there is irony in that performance too.) 

Going back to the first boy again, we find another helpful 
suggestion in the nature of extra-curricular guidance. One 
morning in the dressing-room, his mentor recalled the work of his 
class on the compound-sentence idea, and asked him to create 
a few just for fun. The boy began to reach out again as if 
something were to be found on the shelf, up in the medicine- 
cabinet, or behind the radiator. "No, boy, just make them 
up out of your activity." Soon he said: "The shirt I am put- 
ting on is badly faded, and the socks I am about to put on are 
holey." At once his chattering ran off on a condenser he had 
made the night before. (All boys take to electricity, if they have 
a ghost of a chance. It is silly nonsense to suppose interests in 
radio are native.) "Now, boy, if you want to tell me about 
your condenser, tell it in a good complex-compound-complex 
sentence. He did it thus: "The condenser which I made last 
night works very well indeed, and when I rub my feet (shoes 
on) on the rug it is charged." 

The contrast is dwelt on here, because we are morally certain 
that no aspect of directing study for creative thinking is more 
crucial than the control and redirection of home study and out- 
of-class work. The seemingly inevitable tendency is to fall back 
upon acceptance of ready-made data. It will require years of 
patient and persistent experimentation to eradicate the disposi- 
tion to regard "learning" as the acceptance of facts, and to move 
up to the level of viewing education as the process of analyzing 
problems in the light of facts. 

The important consideration in this exercise or problem is to 
make sure that the pupil shall begin his sentence-building out 
of his own (guided) activities. He should be guarded subse- 
quently in any review or reference in order that he may not 
deteriorate into the practice of the artificial schoolboy who 
reports in terms of old movie films stored up in memory. The 
creative work must not cease even in review or drill. Otherwise, 
the process of instillation will intrude itself with all the dangers 
of indoctrination. Text-books will not be deleted. They may 
be used in the game, in the contest, under the spirit and genius 
of the old spelling-bee of our fathers. The interesting side of 
the problem lies in the fact that the pupils will be able to exhaust 



A MANUAL OF SUGGESTIVE PROCEDURES 33 

the material of more text-books than the ordinary school now 
provides. 

Up through self-activity by a creative process into text 
material and supplementary matter indicates, in a way, the 
direction of this procedure. 

In this exercise or problem carried on for several days as a 
part of the challenge in the classes studied, diagramming of 
sentences was freely used. This practice may strike some 
readers as a bit old fashioned. We are quite sure that boys and 
girls find diagramming a fruitful practice. A "general frame of 
reference" aids the mind in clarifying word functions in sen- 
tence structure. If it results in a mechanical formalism, may 
not that result be due to a much more fundamental error or 
philosophy back of the whole system of education? Any 
formula may be abused. Any pattern may become an empty 
form. That fact does not invalidate the formula, either in 
science or English expression. The psychological import of 
representing relations in a diagram would seem to be sound. 
Moreover, the new procedure calls for an enormous amount of 
work in checking results. The teacher, by "a stroke of the 
eye," can check the pupil's work on his sentences when they are 
thrown into a good, clear, differentiating diagram. Besides 
the economical aspects of the problem, youngsters find real 
enjoyment in diagramming. The emerging masters in any 
class group, dealing with the relative pronoun, need not stop 
short of "Than whom Beelzebub, none higher sat," etc., as a 
bit of a challenge to their powers, and, as pointed out in our 
illustrative procedure (No. VI), the practice of scaling the Al- 
pine peaks of difficulties will react beneficially upon every mem- 
ber of a working, climbing, participating group. 

The pupils were asked to explain the various forms of the 
compound-sentence idea, taking it for granted that their audi- 
ence did not understand the problem. 

John, fourteen, wrote it thus: (Only a sample.) 

" Seeing that you know what simple, complex, compound sen- 
tences are, I will now try to show you how we arrive at a com- 
plex-compound sentence. 

First I will write a complex-compound sentence and then 
take it apart and show you the relation of its parts to one an- 
other. 



34 DIRECTING STUDY 

This book which has a green cover on it is torn and I will 
make a new cover for it. (The boy diagrammed his sentence.) 

This book is torn, I will number i. 

Which has a cover on it, I will number 2. 

I will make a new cover for it, I will number 3. 

Now, 1 plus 2 together make a complex sentence. 

1 and 3 together make a compound sentence. 

Therefore (1 plus 2) plus 3 must make a complex-com- 
pound sentence. 

So we draw the conclusion that (a plus b) plus c = ? 
So our definition of a compound-complex sentence is simple. 
Any sentence, part of which is compound and the other part 
complex, forms a compound-complex sentence. Or, if a part 
of a sentence is complex and the other parts compound, then we 
have a complex-compound sentence." 

Out of the classes from which this illustrative procedure is 
developed, some of the kiddies, John and others, made the dis- 
covery that (a plus b) plus (c plus d) might be used to represent 
a complex-compound-complex sentence, in which each member 
of the compound sentence is complex. One is tempted to add 
a word about the exhilaration of discovery and the penchant 
for big words in these early, yeasty years of adolescence. Suffice 
it to raise the query: Why should the "professor" think that 
he alone has a "vested right" in coining new words? (Inci- 
dentally, cross connections can be made between departments. 
Algebra is not a useless abstraction in a vital school. The 
teacher of geometry will do well to reciprocate, and make vivid 
use of the dependent proposition and the independent proposition 
when dealing with the hypothesis and conclusion.) 

The nomenclature is not so desperately important, if a real 
building process is being carried out in the mind of the learner. 
We need to pay attention to conventional forms, but the main 
thing in creative thinking is to see to it that mere definitions 
are utterly useless, and that vital principles can be built up in a 
moving-learning synthesis. Here, as in the case of a triangle 
regarded as a thing to think with, so the diagram or any objective 
representation in a "general frame of reference" comes to have 
significance and economy as a thing to think with. There is no 
danger of a mechanical formalism so long as the instruments of 
teaching and learning are used in creativeness. 



A MANUAL OF SUGGESTIVE PROCEDURES 35 

Starting with individual work in the building of the sentences 
out of guided action and reaction to suggestion, an interesting 
and productive procedure may be employed in the form of part- 
nership teaching. The pupils may be paired in the class- 
room and each may explain and expound to the other his own 
list of sentences. (A little fellow, only twelve, in the class from 
which the main points of this illustration are drawn, expounded 
the compound sentence to a university professor. The professor 
said it was most illuminating.) Each will profit by the other's 
production. Variety will be evident, for the pupils have been 
engaged in a creative opportunity. The teacher moves effec- 
tively among the little groups stimulating, guiding, shifting this 
one and that one into better and better working relations. The 
visiting spectator will perhaps see nothing in this procedure 
but a "bear garden." He will fail to appraise what he thinks 
he sees. He may need to be told that it is the dust of industry 
and a shared activity — a consummation far exceeding the order 
of a cemetery for boys and girls cured of the habits of "paying 
attention" and loyally co-operating with the teacher to put the 
hour out of its agony. Our spectators, both pupils and visitors, 
need to be converted into participants. The next step up from 
partnerships is a grouping of pupils under leaders chosen out 
of their group. The whole class may come to concerted atten- 
tion whenever there is need of clarification of organizing princi- 
ples, or when there has been work enough to make a discussion 
procedure profitable, or when the game is on for competitive 
results. A pupil chairman may, now and again, be helpful in a 
socializing procedure — hardly ever in the recitation system or 
any form of regimentation. Where the corporate spirit is made 
the point of departure and the goal (flying goal) toward which 
we are striving, there are many ways open for participation and 
for the exercise of alternate forms of leadership. The spectator 
will know next to nothing about all this so long as he sits on the 
bleacher seats. 

Two sets of text-books containing exercises upon a given prin- 
ciple may be used in this partnership way. Two sets (dupli- 
cated) of word lists may furnish the teacher a way of partner- 
ship teaching and open up the highway to corporate responsi- 
bility in the class. It is the way, also, toward a cultivation of 
self-respect. Emerson can tell us about that. Each pupil in a 



36 DIRECTING STUDY 

partnership arrangement, especially in the sentences built up 
as illustrated above, has something to contribute quite his own. 
Uniformity of materials of assignment suggests identity of 
opinion. That is a stupid thing in any conversational group 
and equally futile in any situation directed to creative effort. 



X 

This exercise is selected to indicate procedure. It 
will be noted that work is described for a period of five 
or six days. The entire account is given in the form 
of a diary by a college senior, participating in a oth- 
grade class in English. The reader will catch a glimpse 
of the procedure employed in the school and also some 
idea of the way of preparing the teacher through partici- 
pation. The college senior in this procedure (not 
practice teaching) is never allowed to be a spectator; 
the purpose is to become a participant. 

This class was composed of a staff teacher, thirty- 
six pupils (9th grade), and three college seniors. 



Miss H. is reporting. Mr. P. is the staff teacher. 
At the close Miss P., another college senior, is given a 
chance to talk. 



To-day at the beginning of the hour, Mr. P. handed each of us 
(pupils included) a mimeographed class roll. After each name we put 
the mark that we thought he was worth. The pupils were very hard 
to mark. Some of them do not often bring themes to read but take an 
active interest in the proceedings of the class, i. e., Russel never volun- 
teers to read a story, but he comments readily on the themes of others. 
Last Thursday when I was chairman I asked him to tell a story (he did 
not volunteer) and he told one of the best that has been told in that 
class. He is in the geometry class I am in, also, and by comparing the 
work done in both classes, I think that perhaps he underestimates his 
ability. I think he is a little lax in doing his work. 



A MANUAL OF SUGGESTIVE PROCEDURES 37 

Since Marshall is so very interested in his work and takes such an 
active part in the class work — he always has a story — I think he deserves 
a very good mark even though his themes show signs of haste. 

I do not know what to give Bowen. He is not interested and always 
does so much to distract the work of the others and to annoy the chair- 
man. If he could be made interested in the work so that he would 
forget to be mischievous. Then, too, he is at the age when boys are 
usually "smart." 

Florence is plainly not interested. She has no time to waste writing 
themes. She very seldom comments and never writes, but I think 
that she could. 

I wish Henry would write more. He could write well and he made the 
best chairman we have had this semester. 

Alice and Eunice are, it seems to me, all that we could wish. They 
are interested and they always have themes, and they read well. 

After we finished the grades, Mr. P. assigned the new work. It is 
to be description, a descriptive paragraph with a topic sentence as the 
beginning and a general statement at the close. 

Then we took a picture and together found all the ideas and then all 
the events that we could see in the picture. These we listed on the 
board. Next we picked out the best idea to be used in the topic sentence, 
and then we picked out the second best idea to be used in the con- 
clusion. 

After we had completed this, we all set to work to write the descrip- 
tion and this completed the hour. I like the way of assigning new 
work because when the pupils leave the class they know exactly what 
their next work will be and they can get the lesson for the next time. 
It is such a loss of time not to make the assignment clear in the first 
place. 

Many of the pupils were able to complete the description in the 
fifteen minutes allotted to it. This showed that they worked hard in 
class. 



Henry was elected chairman to-day. Henry makes a very 
good chairman. He presides with dignity. I think he is the 
best student chairman in the class. To-day he was very strict 
with the class, but I think he was right, for the class was very 



38 



DIRECTING STUDY 



alive this morning and was hard to hold. Henry did exceedingly 
well. He would pay no attention to the pupils unless they 
raised their hands. When several talked at once, he would pay 
no attention. He settled debated questions with justice and 
decisiveness. Henry is sometimes a little sarcastic, but as yet 
it has not got him into trouble in the class. 
The themes read were about the fly. 



D— Fly 



E — Swat 



E— Now 



In the first paragraph we were to describe the fly in some term. 
The second was to be exposition on "swatting" the fly. The 
third was to be exposition about swatting it "now." 

Most of the pupils had the correct idea. But the themes were 
very different. I think we all found this theme very difficult 
to write. It must be too short and too compact. I think the 
pupils did very well indeed with the assignment. 

I do not think that the class pays as good attention and is 
more noisy when the subject is assigned. The themes are more 
or less alike and they get tired of listening to the same subject 
discussed sti- many times. 

I notice that Russel is beginning to have a theme every day 
now and he volunteers to read. He also comments on nearly 
every theme that is read. 

Marian read to-day for the first time since I have been in the 
class. She is very shy and does not read well. She is also 
very sensitive to criticism. She should read oftener and perhaps 
she would get over it. 



To-day we each wrote a theme in class. We took our sub- 
jects from two pictures — one was a woman setting the table, 
the other was a man at his office desk. 



D 




E 




E 




C 



In the first paragraph we explained the problem, in the second 
we wrote a paragraph of exposition about one of the pictures, 



A MANUAL OF SUGGESTIVE PROCEDURES 39 

and in the third we wrote a paragraph of exposition about the 
other picture, and in the last one we brought both pictures 
together into a conclusion. 

At the beginning of the hour Mr. P. mentioned that the 
themes were to be handed in and were to be considered as tests. 
The class settled down to work. There was not a great deal of 
talking and soon the themes began to be finished. I wrote as 
fast as I could in order to get mine completed that I might assist 
in correcting those of the pupils. I corrected several. They 
all bore signs of haste. Many words were misspelled. One 
boy (Harry) capitalized his words indiscriminately. He made 
sentences without either verbs or subjects. I find that the pupils 
read stories much better than they write them. They write 
them very carelessly. Many of them do not seem to know much 
about sentence structure, and many other things about gram- 
mar. 

It is hard to write themes in class, because there is more or 
less noise and distraction. Then, too, there is no opportunity 
for revising and reorganizing them. When I write a theme, I 
often have to write it all over after the first writing, and re- 
organize the whole thing. 

We began on an entirely new kind of work to-day. The 
reading of "Julius Cassar." Mr. P. had the books there. This 
is a very good plan, for then all of the pupils will have a book i 
when necessary and they will all be uniform. This will be easier 
to read because you can refer to pages. It is always desirable 
to use uniform texts in the classroom if it is at all possible. 

At the beginning of the hour Mr. P. explained about our voices 
and why reading is such a difficult matter and what we can do 
with our voices. He made it as concrete as he could by placing 
a diagram of a man's head and neck on the board, putting in 
the lungs, vocal organs, and mouth. Then he explained how 
the sound is produced and how each individual sound is made. 
Then he explained about stress, pitch, and amplitude. 

We read the first scene of " Julius Caesar." First the parts were 
assigned to four boys. They read the scene and we discussed 
their reading and gave each the mark that we thought that he 
deserved. Then four girls read the scene and we marked them. 
Then last we seniors read it. 

The class as a whole read well. Some of them read too loudly 



40 DIRECTING STUDY 

but they pronounce well and read with expression. I think 
that they read exceptionally well to have never read it before. 

The class entered on this work with a will. It is something 
new and they were interested. 



We read from "Julius Caesar " this morning. It was expected 
that we read Act I before we came to class, but I do not think 
that many of them did. They mispronounced words that they 
could have pronounced if they had read it before coming to 
class. Many of them just read words. The meaning was not 
clear to them, and so they could not make it clear to the audience. 
I think that on the whole the class reads well. 

Is there any way by which you can make pupils bring their 
books to class ? If they do not, they must look on with some one 
else, and that causes comment and confusion. And yet if a 
pupil does not have a book he will get nothing out of the lesson 
unless he does look on some one else's book.* 



We are still reading "Julius Caesar." The class is still inter- 
ested in it and all are anxious to take an active part. They are 
evidently (most of them) reading it over before they come to 
class. They try to do as well as they can. I have noticed that 
some of them (those especially that sit near me) are very im- 
patient with those who do not read over their lesson before they 
come to class.f 

They all enjoy reading and that acts as a stimulus to make 
them read better. Marshall said yesterday: "I can't read well, 
but I certainly do like to." He is always very anxious to take 
part and waves his hand frantically. Those who do not often 
read themes are some of the most enthusiastic persons about 
this reading. I suppose that shows that they are interested 

* The best way to "make" pupils do anything is to frame your proce- 
dure so that if they don't do it they will have cut themselves off from 
some interesting class performance in which they will earnestly wish 
they had a part. That is, bait them, don't drive them. [Comment by 
staff teacher.) 

t One of the finest results of this kind of class spirit. {Comment of 
staff teacher.) 



A MANUAL OF SUGGESTIVE PROCEDURES 41 

in something. Stanley never reads a theme, but he does very 
well in this. 



Miss P., up to this point in her participation course 
was inclined to sit on the bleachers and behave as a 
spectator. Often it requires weeks to convert the can- 
didate. It is very difficult in some cases to work into 
the game as a participant. Yet it is our conviction 
that teacher-" training" institutions should undertake 
the task of developing teachers who will refuse to rely 
on status, or authority, or magic, or even rationalizing 
as a basis of security. We need teachers of a demo- 
cratic temper, teachers who are courageous enough 
to stand on a demonstrated merit in terms of an 
honest participation with free minds working forward 
on a challenge or a problem. 

Miss P., below, is a shining example of the old order 
of thinking. The comments of the staff teacher in 
the foot-notes are suggestive. Suffice it to say, Miss 
P. did not remain a spectator. When she finally began 
to play the game, the whole situation and outlook 
began to take on colorful meaning. 



Miss P. is talking now: 

We are reading "Julius Caesar" rapidly in class. Mr. P. or 
Miss H. assigns pupils to take the various parts in the different 
acts and then they get up and present the scene or act in a half- 
dramatic way. No time is spent discussing the scene, characters, 
or the action. The main purpose of the reading seems to be to 
get the story. I wonder how many pupils are getting the story. 
Sometimes, if one is to judge by their reading, it seems as if 
they weren't getting much out of it.* 

* Just wait. (Staff teacher.) 



42 DIRECTING STUDY 

Some of the pupils do, however, put quite a bit of spirit into 
their reading and seem to enjoy doing it. John "waxed elo- 
quent" especially to-day, but he ruined Antony's famous speech 
by giving it a sarcastic interpretation. No comment was made 
about this by Miss H. I'm hoping later the play will be studied 
more intensely and the pupils will be saved from going through 
life thinking that Antony was sarcastic* 

I see Mr. P.'s idea in going through the play in this manner, 
but I wonder whether it does not have its disadvantages too. 
I think the first reading of such a play should be a little bit 
more supervised, t 



XI 

This illustration of procedure is also presented in 
the language of a college senior, participating in a 9th- 
grade class in English. The conditions are similar 
to those described in X. 

The reader will find an extended explanation of the 
procedure of which this is a part on page 160. 

Miss E. has some interesting experiences to relate. 
The W. H. S. to which she refers in these two diaries 

*Well, now, Miss P., was he? John thought he was; you think he 
wasn't. John's thought was his very own; no one told him how to think 
it. Is yours your own? I really think that John's power to have an 
opinion is worth more than any conventional notion about Antony's 
speech which I might pass over to him. If he's wrong, he can change 
his idea. And maybe he didn't convince the class at all. They think ; 
they don't merely suck in passively what some one tells them. But 
Miss P., was Antony sarcastic? (Comments of staff teacher.) 

fThe first reading of any work of literature ought to be a joyous 
exploring trip. And on an exploring trip one doesn't have to see every- 
thing there is or to behold in their proper relationships the things which 
one does see. As for me, deliver me from the "personally conducted" 
Cook tour through literature. Ultimately we'll get accurately all that 
any ninth-year pupil needs to have accurately. I don't like to tell 
pupils what to get from a writing. (Comments of staff teacher.) 



A MANUAL OF SUGGESTIVE PROCEDURES 43 

is the demonstration school of the University of Wis- 
consin. 

Incidentally, X and XI serve to illustrate some real 
problems in preparing teachers for this new procedure. 
These two young ladies of the 16th grade, allocated 
to and participating with a class of 9th-grade pupils 
at work, are telling us the most amazing things about 
their scholarship, ability to cope with pupils for whom 
inhibitions are removed, and capacity for leadership. 
These two respondents are perhaps among the top 
third of more than a thousand college seniors who have 
participated in the school during the past eight years. 



Miss E. presents two of her forty interesting diaries, as fol- 
lows: 

To-day we had a quiz upon the Bible pictures which we have 
been studying for the last three days. I did not have time to 
write about all the pictures which my group was asked to write 
upon, but I knew all those which I had time for. 

This picture study has done much toward making me see, 
clearer than ever before, how important a part in every child's 
life individual differences play. Now, for instance, as for know- 
ing these pictures, Lazare knew practically every one of them 
upon the very first day, while the rest of us knew many less; in 
fact, some of the pupils knew but very few of them. This 
brings out that very important point, which I think every 
teacher should know: all pupils cannot and will not advance 
together; that is, their rate of advancement and of grasping 
knowledge will be different in every case. If a teacher is going 
to give every pupil a fair chance to develop, this is one, if not 
the most, essential point which she should know and understand. 
She must not expect that every pupil will progress at the same 
speed as every other pupil, for this will never be true; so she must 
conduct the class in such a way that all these differences will 
be met and provided for, otherwise some pupils will not advance 
at all. ^ Individual differences #«fs£ be understood. 



44 DIRECTING STUDY 

/ feel that the method used in the W. E. S. of having 
the University seniors go right into the class and do the 
very same work that the pupils are doing is a great im- 
provement over the old method of mere observation and 
then teaching, for observation can never give a college 
senior what actual development with pupils can give her. 
If I had been in the class merely observing and teaching 
without preparing the very same lessons as the pupils 
did, I would never have understood these pupils as I 
do to-day, for since I have been doing everything that they 
have been doing we have all developed together. I have 
come to see their good and excellent qualities, and also 
their weaker ones. I have been able to compare one 
pupil with the other, and also to compare all of them with 
myself in regard to the way I have been doing their work. 
In other words, I have seen development and have taken 
part in it; I have had real, true experience which is of 
greatest possible value to me. I have also come to under- 
stand my own weaknesses and have learned how these 
same weaknesses have been met, as well as what has en- 
couraged me and what has discouraged me. 



I feel that I will now be able to apply just such things, as well 
as many more, in my own work to make it most successful. To 
sum this all up in the fewest possible words, I may say that I 
now understand boys and girls better than I have ever understood 
them before, and I have been led to see that if each pupil is 
going to have a fair chance in the classroom, the teacher must 
understand every one of them as separate individuals and be 
able to meet their differences as they arise.* 



* Miss E., you amaze me. For three weeks, or more, you sat in 
my class and were essentially an outsider. I don't think that you once 
got into the very heart of anything we were doing. I knew that you 



A MANUAL OF SUGGESTIVE PROCEDURES 45 

To-day we continued the picture study which we started 
Monday, and which we are to be examined upon to-morrow. 
From this very informal study, which we have been diverting 
ourselves to for the last few days, I have come to see that there 
are a great many possibilities as to the way in which boys and 
girls may be taught. These pupils are all showing the greatest 
possible interest in this present study of the Bible. Of course 
I know it is something entirely different from what they have 
ever had before, but still I wonder if we had been given this kind 
of work when I was in high school whether or not we would have 
been so enthusiastic about it as these pupils seem to be. This 
question leads me to take this opportunity to mention another 
one which I have thought about time after time. I have often 
asked myself, if I had been asked to conduct my class while in 
high school, could I, or any of the other pupils, have been able 
to do so ? And again I wondered whether we could have done 
so if we had been given the same kind of training as these pupils 
are getting. 

The conditions here are so different from the high-school 
conditions with which I am acquainted, and the pupils seem to 
offer so many more possibilities than my fellow pupils did, that 
I cannot keep myself from continually contrasting this method 
of education with the one which I studied under. These pupils 
are so anxious to talk and so enthusiastic about all their work 
that I cannot see how my classes in high school could have been 
so calm and quiet, for I know that we were real live pupils too. 
As far as getting our lessons was concerned, I know we all did 
that, but still I don't think that we ever grasped our subjects 
as many of these pupils do, for here they seem to grasp every 
point by the very "nape of the neck," if I may use that term. I 
feel that this experience in the W. H. S. has been of very great 
value to me, for it has opened for me an entirely different view 
of teaching. I have come to see that my high school lagged 
behind because of the lack of force upon the part of the teachers. 

were not wasting time, but were coming along — slowly, very slowly. 
I feared, however, that you might not arrive anywhere within your all- 
too-short term with us. But now you truly amaze me and arouse me 
to admiration; you are now in some respects analyzing yourself and the 
pupils much better than I myself can. Splendid ! (Comment of staff 
teacher.) 



46 DIRECTING STUDY 

I feel quite safe in saying that a teacher makes the school. If 
she is a progressive and up-to-date teacher, her classes will be 
such, and if she fails in this respect, the school will fail also. I 
have become so much interested in Mr. P.'s method of teaching 
that I am very anxious to get home at Christmas time so that 
I may visit my high school, and compare the work done there 
with the work done in the W. H. S. 

I am also going to take this opportunity again of saying 
that I know that these few weeks have done much to develop 
me. When I first entered this class I felt very self-conscious; 
in fact, it might be said that I was almost afraid, but now I have 
come to feel that I have more confidence in myself, possibly I 
have not yet as much as I should have, but I feel that I can de- 
velop it and am doing so. I have gotten so that I liked to be 
called upon, for the pupils have always seemed to enjoy what I 
have said, especially when I have given stories, and this has 
helped me greatly. As far as knowing the different things that 
come up in the class is concerned, I have often felt that the pupils 
knew much more than I, but now it seems to me that when some 
big question has come up that my knowledge has surpassed 
theirs as it should, but as far as details are concerned, I think 
they would oftentimes, and have in that case, surpassed me.* 



XII 

Some one has discerningly suggested that boys and 
girls would rise to the writing of themes as if to the 

* Splendid. You are thinking straight to the point. I like par- 
ticularly your way of comparing the W. H. S. class methods and pupils 
with those of your own high school without belittling the latter; of 
course you were yourself there an earnest student; you would be in any 
school. And there would be many others. But the difficulty isn't 
with your kind of persons; it is with boys overloaded with dynamic 
energy and girls overloaded with emotion. What can the school do 
with them? — your school? — this school? Our attempt is to devise 
procedure which will help a good high school (or a good teacher) to 
become better by having a firmer grip, a more versatile approach, 
and a more productive stimulus toward all pupils. (Comment of staff 
teacher.) 



A MANUAL OF SUGGESTIVE PROCEDURES 47 

manner born if teachers would use the detective story 
in some such manner as follows: Present the story and 
situations leading up to the development of the de- 
nouement, and then let the pupils unravel or discover 
the plot, finishing the story in their own ways. 

The following illustrative procedure suggests rare 
possibilities. In a social science class (ioth grade) 
the second chapter of the individual books which the 
pupils were venturing to write — a chapter entitled 
"Printing and Its Allied Arts" — the teacher dictated 
a part of a story under the caption, ZZ. Q4. The 
pupils took the dictation. The teacher invented his 
part of the story. More or less may be dictated in 
this general procedure. Perhaps a sentence or a pic- 
ture would be adequate in some situations. 

1. Part of what the teacher dictated: 

I was seated in the stack-room of the library recently, deeply 
engrossed in reading a book entitled Comfort Found in Good Old 

Books at a late hour janitor 

campus deserted as I stood in 

revery, I suddenly heard a voice " Hello there, 

ZZ. Q_4 ; you weren't gone very long this time, were you." Answer 

"No, the boy that took me out 

left me at the desk Had finest trip in all my 

life." Many voices. " Tell us about it." 

Books on printing were talking ZZ. Q4 

"John N. took me out." Mr. B. 

said it cost $600,000 to build our home (Many 

interesting places are suggested.) 

2. At this point the pupils began to write their own 
composition. Only one sample of some thirty inter- 
esting productions is appended. Richard carried on 
as follows, seeking, it would seem, only the "wages of 
going on" in the spirit of the real hero. 



48 DIRECTING STUDY 

There are 30,000 volumes of newspapers in the library; about 
100,000 pounds. In the newspaper-room an old lady told us 
several things about early papers. The earliest paper they had 
was published in 1830. You remember that big magazine that 
so many girls bring to the reading-room. The Saturday Evening 
Post, I think they call it. Well, a man by the name of Keimer 
had some argument with a man named Benjamin Franklin. 
Keimer learned through a supposed friend of Franklin's that 
Franklin intended to start a magazine that year.' He decided to 
revenge himself by getting ahead of Franklin and publishing one 
himself. When Franklin learned of this action, he went to work 
for a newspaper and by his skilful writings succeeded in forcing 
Keimer out of business. He then bought the magazine for al- 
most nothing and changed its name from the Penn. Gazette to the 
name it now bears. 

At this point in the story, a thin piping voice rose from a 
corner in the shelf. " I remember, I remember. I was a young 
book then and had just come off the press." " What do you 
mean by interrupting me?" said ZZ. Q4. "If you remember 
that, you don't belong up here anyway. How did you get up 
here?" "It's not my fault," said the voice from the corner. 
" A new careless librarian put me up here. I'd sooner be down- 
stairs anyway. It will kill an old book like me if I'm kept 
awake many more nights by your noisy chattering." "Well, 
don't interrupt again," said ZZ. Q4, and he continued with his 
tale. 

We were next told that the first paper to be printed by this 
company was the New England Affaires, in 1687. The next 
paper was the Publick Occurrences, in 1690. 

From the newspaper-room we went to the map-room, where 
we saw the signatures of George Washington and those of the 
signers of the Declaration of Independence. They had a letter 
from a man named Adams, too, said ZZ. Q4. They had several 
early maps of Wisconsin there also. They showed how little 
people knew about this territory. There was a map made by 
Joliet which pictured the Mississippi regions (1673). The 
different regions which were occupied by various tribes were 
shown on another map. The lady in charge of that room ex- 
plained that Wisconsin had been admitted to the Union in 1848 
and that in 1858 the counties were indefinitely laid out. 



A MANUAL OF SUGGESTIVE PROCEDURES 49 

We left this room then and went up to the reading-room, 
but on the way out we glanced into a smaller room in which 
were collected books and papers that had been collected or copied 
by Draper. Up in the reading-room Mr. Burke told us that 
the University subscribed to 1500 periodicals. 

We left this room then and went to the stack-room, where we 
were told that each floor had a capacity of 50,000 volumes of 
books. There are five floors devoted to books. I learned that 
we never need fear a fire here because the building was con- 
structed fireproof. The University hires fourteen people at each 
desk to handle us, and they get very tired doing it when the 
students are studying for a quiz. At this moment a ray of light 
came through the window. At this sign of coming day there was 
a sudden rustle and then all was still. 



Observations. — Here is an excellent example of fur- 
nishing the mind data to work on, of developing an in- 
tellectual method or a way of thinking, and of stimu- 
lating curiosity. Instead of asking pupils to go hence, 
write a theme on this or that barren topic — virtually 
asking them to lift themselves by pulling on their 
intellectual boot-straps — or exhorting them to think 
in a vacuum, the procedure starts with a gripping prob- 
lem and a supply of material shaped up for further 
elaboration. Provocative ideas and data are supplied, 
not to be merely memorized or accepted as such, but 
to be used in a learning or building process. It is not 
a situation in which a lot of facts are learned and then 
a command given to go off and try to think and write. 

It is again an application of the essential principles 
of a new general method of approach. It is in essence 
the scientific way. Data are supplied. A way of 
thinking is projected. An hypothesis is set up. As 
the data are used, the way of thinking is redefined. 
The goal is work with prospective intention. 



50 DIRECTING STUDY 

The apprehension that pupils will not know things 
of common, social, and practical import need not arise 
if information is used in developing problem procedures 
in the way indicated in this exercise. The essence of 
the problem was disclosed by Einstein in his answer to 
Edison's adult Binet-Simon test. Einstein said he 
could not answer Edison's questions, but he said he 
knew how to go about it to find the answers to every 
one of them. The capacity and the disposition to use 
information would seem to be of primary importance, 
while the mere possession of any facts would seem to be 
quite secondary indeed. 

The illustration discloses the effectiveness of giving 
artistic social starters. English composition, history, 
any form of writing offers opportunities for this sort of 
creativeness. Effective freedom and the release of 
powers can be best worked out where there is guided 
self-activity within a controlled environment. 

A teacher assisted his class in developing the situa- 
tions, color, background, and spirit of the poem 
"Barbara Frietchie." He suggested that perhaps the 
author had written other stanzas than those appearing 
in the poem. The challenge to the pupils was to write 
an additional stanza, or so, to this poem. They did it 
admirably. There is creativeness in such a procedure. 
It is a valuable thing to do, now and again. 

XIII 

Film, Slides, Pictures, Etc. 

The value of the film as an educational means is not clear. 
There is need of careful experimentation in its use in connection 
with courses of instruction. Confident acceptance of the va- 



A MANUAL OF SUGGESTIVE PROCEDURES 51 

lidity and value of the film is met by honest scepticism in many 
quarters. 

Perhaps a statement of the problem is about all we can safely 
venture at this time. The passive attitude before the film may 
be related to the passivity of the "learner" in many other 
situations. In other words, the criticism against the moving 
picture on the ground that visual instruction makes no demand 
upon the audience to do any vital sort of creative thinking is an 
indictment that may be lodged against many other forms of 
objective representations of reality. Plato was impatient with 
those who urged the use of geometrical figures. It seemed to 
him to be an unnecessary accompaniment to pure thinking. 
The student before a lecturer may take his mental siesta just 
as certainly as the movie fan. The printed page is too often 
viewed with a high degree of passivity. The reader may be a 
victim of the dogma of acceptance, merely following the printed 
page with as little productive thinking as the person who follows 
the film presentation. Paying attention may be a passive, me- 
chanical, inert acceptance of explanation. To parrot abstractions 
and to absorb opinions may result in nothing more than idle 
revery. The issue in all these situations is just this: Does the 
individual behave as a recipient or a reading agent? Is he a 
spectator or a participant? The recitation, the lecture, the 
printed page, the picture, the diagram, the stereopticon, the 
film may all be considered in one of these aspects or the other. 
The film, like any other objective means, may or not be used 
in a sound educational way. It should be mentioned, in pass- 
ing, that it is not essential in every situation that values be re- 
duced to linguistic categories. There are educational values 
lying in the realm of enjoyment and appreciation. 

The constructive attitude toward all these accompaniments of 
thinking from the simplest diagrammatic representation to the 
film is to be found in relating these potential instruments of 
education to the individual as a reacting agent. Otherwise 
we may have a mere verbalism with no urge to creative think- 
ing. The printed page is included in the series. There may 
be an illusion in reading words or following a lecture just as in 
the case of sitting in front of a moving picture. What we hope 
to say here is that a common problem runs throughout the whole 
series of objective symbols used to represent ideas. 



52 DIRECTING STUDY 

Examples of procedure in this general field. 

(a) A teacher of English has made excellent use of pictures 
collected from such periodicals as the Saturday Evening Post, 
Ladies' Home Journal, Country Gentleman. When the challenge 
was on to write two-character stories, such pictures as the old 
man in the attitude of conveying to his pal the size of the fish 
he was about to catch, David Harum in the horse-trading scene 
(an old man and a boy), will prove suggestive after a mode of 
building such stories is developed. The picture and the cartoon 
can be utilized in productive ways in story writing. 

(6) In geometry pupils should trace figures in the air now and 
again to make sure that the figures drawn on paper or black- 
board do not become excess baggage. A great deal of motion 
can be put into mathematics. Seeing the figures with eyes 
closed is an excellent practice in thinking in geometrical cate- 
gories. A reliable thinker can make a clear demonstration with 
a poor figure to "talk to." There is a place for an accurate 
drawing of geometrical figures, but it is not the most important 
matter. 

(c) A similar suggestion may be made about the use of the 
diagram in English grammar. 

(d) In the use of slides and stereopticon sets, a very general 
practice is now being followed in having the pupils themselves 
work up a lantern talk. They select their own material and 
are responsible for its presentation. Some four or five pupils may 
co-operate in presenting the pictures. They should be encour- 
aged to give their work orally without committing to memory 
the phrasing which they employ. It is a good plan, as a rule, 
to have all members of the class held responsible for discussion 
of the topic thus presented. There are many possibilities in 
this procedure. One boy made a study of sanitation in a class 
in civic biology. He collected pictures as far back as ancient 
Greece and combined them in a presentation of the conditions 
in his own city, using his camera to complete the series. 

(e) This experiment in the use of the film was conducted in 
connection with English literature. The film used was "The 
Lady of the Lake." Two class groups in English began the 
study of it a week before the film was presented. Two other 
class groups began the class work on it just after the running of 
the film. It is not possible to speak with certitude about the 



A MANUAL OF SUGGESTIVE PROCEDURES 53 

relative values of the film in these two situations. For the 
former groups the film appeared to be an excellent and vivid 
summarizing of "The Lady of the Lake." No doubt the situa- 
tions, scenery, and characters were appreciated and appraised 
much more vitally for those pupils in the first groups than was 
the case for the second groups. On the other hand, it seems 
valid to assume that the pupils who began their work on "The 
Lady of the Lake" with the film presentation moved forward in 
the reading of the poem with a keener interest and a better under- 
standing than the former. It is impossible to compare these 
values. Obviously the same pupil could not report in both situa- 
tions. One may be strongly tempted to dismiss this particular 
aspect of the experiment or seek to set up a scale of values and 
indulge in the measurement movement. The only point of 
interest we shall urge at this juncture is to assert that in both 
situations the film seemed to be a valuable instrument. The use 
of it in either way can be justified. The main fact is obvious: 
the pupils made an essentially different use of the film in this 
setting from that of the commercial playhouse. They tied it up 
in a vital way in a course of instruction and made it serve a pur- 
pose beyond that of the spectator. It is again recognized that 
such a film may serve a legitimate educational purpose when 
given out of context at the movie house. The general effect may 
be wholesome and, in fact, contributory to the direct educational 
processes in the implicit forms of enriching life through enjoy- 
ment and appreciation. 

(J) The film has far-reaching potential usefulness in the 
study of geography, history, chemical and physical processes, 
and manufacturing. The physiographic features, beauties of 
nature, river systems, cities, modes of living, etc., are, beyond 
question, presented in the film with high skill and incalculable 
value. So in history. The entire series of processes involved 
in the production of any one of a thousand substances "created" 
by the chemist, and the phenomenal side of all sorts of revela- 
tions by the physicist and other scientists, can be gripped up in 
a film and used either as a summarizing statement after study 
and experimentation or as a projected picture antedating an 
interesting adventure into some one of these enticing fields. In 
either situation the film can be utilized to tremendous educa- 
tional advantage. Manufacturing processes and factory produc- 



54 DIRECTING STUDY 

tion are thrown on the screen everywhere. More explicit use of 
all such material may be made by a redirection of instructional 
work in such ways as to make possible direct connections with 
this new and potential tool of education. We are still pioneering 
in this new field. 

It seems reasonable to suppose that only one opinion 
about the film as an educational instrument should be 
given consideration. If it is used in any of the ways 
suggested, it may be regarded as an invaluable instru- 
ment. Perhaps something akin to this conclusion 
should be said about the lecture. It, too, may be 
employed in the secondary school to decided advantage. 
The point to be safeguarded is to see to it that it is 
used as a means in clarifying or economizing the pupil's 
productive thinking. The lay of the land, a schemati- 
zation of the search, a setting-up of the problem, a 
summarization of the work of a challenge for perspec- 
tive — any one of these objectives may, now and again, 
be best realized by a vital lecture procedure. The 
pupil may be just as passive in the lecture as before 
the film. If the pupil is transformed from the spec- 
tator to the participant, or from the recipient to a 
reacting agent, the evils of both film and lecture disap- 
pear. 

XIV 

General Science, 8th Grade, 
Junior High School 

Assignment. — Exercises, questions, or problems to be worked 
out by the pupils both in class and out of class. 

Illustration. — (One exercise to illustrate the danger of accepting 
an answer and the possibilities of creative thinking.) 



A MANUAL OF SUGGESTIVE PROCEDURES 55 

i. "Will it take more heat to start a ton of coal than a shovel- 
ful?" 

Procedure. — A boy of twelve began his task at home by asking 
his aunt (a teacher, formerly) what the answer to the problem 
was. In a very natural way the answer was about to be passed 
on. It happened that a third person was present. He sug- 
gested a more productive procedure than telling. 

"Now talk to your question." 

"Read it again very carefully." 

The boy read it slowly. Then he began to "talk" to it. "I 
should think a ton of coal would make more heat than a shovel- 
ful," said he. "Now, read it again, and ask yourself whether 
what you say and what you read have any connection." 

A rereading brought the emphasis on the word start. "Oh," 
he said, "I see." "It would not take any more heat to start a 
ton than a shovelful. I could prove it. I can take a match 
and a bit of kindling and start each pile of coal with the same 
amount of kindling. The amount of heat in each of the two 
matches used to start the kindling in each case would be the 
same. The heat in the two heaps of kindling would be the 
same. And therefore the amount of heat required to start 
the two heaps of coal of different size would be the same. I think 
I have a correct answer. Of course the conditions would have 
to be the same." 

Observations. — (i) The boy could have readily assimilated 
so much as his queasy stomach would bear out of the predi- 
gested material (answer) gratuitously offered. Ready-made 
answers can be transmitted. Pupils can learn to parrot ab- 
stractions, but they will never become scientific-minded by that 
method. They can develop a marvellous capacity to repeat 
other peoples' opinions. They will not become cultured in 
any true sense by so doing. 

(2) The home-study problem is given a new emphasis in this 
boy's experience. Work well done in class was about to be 
nullified in home study by mere passing on of answers. This 
boy was directed in his thinking by a turn of events. 

(3) The correct answer in a thinking process is of minor im- 
portance. In fact, an incorrect answer is not to be regarded 
as educational tragedy in a building, creative process. The 
penchant for "correct" answers has led to trick training. Trick 



56 DIRECTING STUDY 

pupils are not being educated in any true sense. The capacity 
merely to give responses of approved sort upon signals is cer- 
tainly not our highest hope for the human mind. The puzzle 
stage of education is solemnly perpetuated out of a false empha- 
sis upon education as knowing. We have perhaps enough of 
knowledge about some things, but altogether too meagre ac- 
quaintance with vital matters of life and culture. The boy in 
our illustration was developing power to think in creative terms 
in a process of "fumbling and success." To be able to arrive 
at a tentative answer to the question and to be able to support 
that tentative position with some "real" reasons are steps the 
thinker takes in his experimental questing. The correct answer 
is not the crucial matter in this learning stage. 

Summary. — The purpose of these illustrative pro- 
cedures will be realized if they prove suggestive and 
provocative. "Methods," as ordinarily conceived, are 
not offered. Further examples are included throughout 
the argument in the following chapters. 

It would be easy to indulge in destructive criticism. 
That is not our purpose in any statement that may seem 
to be an indictment of our educational establishment. 
Every illustrative exercise is intended to reveal some 
ways of removing inhibitions to thinking, stimulating 
curiosity, overcoming defense reactions and fear, or 
substituting for various forms of protective coloring a 
genuine work spirit. 

Instead of setting up a least common denominator 
of common knowledge and institutionalized values for 
a going machine of assimilation leading to uniformity, 
we have sought to present a truer ideal of American life 
by developing a workable programme within a highest 
common multiple that expresses a genuine community 
of interests for any working class group. In the latter 
view we frankly choose to be dissimilar. Every pupil 



A MANUAL OF SUGGESTIVE PROCEDURES 57 

is a person, not a number. Out of a guided self-ex- 
pression, out of a creative self-activity, co-operations 
are secured. No illusion is entertained about develop- 
ing thinking capacity, curiosity, initiative co-operative- 
ness, etc. Most of these desiderata will emerge if 
inhibitions are removed and a controlled environment 
is fabricated in which effective freedom is made possible. 
The disposition to accept our system of education 
uncritically, or the disposition to be critical and not 
constructive concerning it, is dangerous. The problem 
we are facing is not merely a classroom problem. 
Parents are vitally concerned in the education of their 
children. They do not deliberately become accom- 
plices in a system of life and schooling that unwittingly 
"buries curiosity alive." 

Beginning with the kindergarten, it provides us (parents) a 
few hours' relief from our responsibility toward our youngsters. 
Curiously, the Americans most given to this evasion are the 
Americans most inveterately sentimental about the "kiddies," 
and most loath to employ the nursery system, holding it some- 
how an undemocratic invasion of the child's rights. Then 
somewhere in the primary grades we begin to feel that we are 
purchasing relief from the burden of fundamental instruction. 
Ourselves mentally lazy, abstracted, and genuinely bewildered 
by the flow of questions from one mouth, we blithely refer that 
awakening curiosity to a harassed young woman, probably 
less informed than we are, who has to answer, or silence, the 
questions of from a score or threescore mouths. So begins the 
long throttling of curiosity which later on will baffle the college 
instructor, who will sometimes write a clever magazine essay 
about the complacent ignorance of his pupils.* 

The alternative is not to abolish the kindergarten, 

school, or college. The challenge to forward-looking 

* Britten, Clarence, Civilization in the United States. School and Col- 
lege Life, p. 113. 



58 DIRECTING STUDY 

thinkers is to build a new technic by which it will 
be possible to release the powers of the human mind. 
A redirection, not a destruction, of educational means 
is imperative. We shall attempt to present both the 
plea and a programme for a new general method in 
terms of the learner transformed from a recipient to 
a reacting agent and converted from a spectator to a 
participant. We shall endeavor to locate the responsi- 
bility of parents, supervisors, teachers, and pupils in a 
community of interests. The organized means of edu- 
cation — the system itself, subject-matter, methods — 
will need to be vitally related to the proposed procedure. 



CHAPTER II 
ADMINISTRATION OF DIRECTING STUDY 

A New Point of View. — Supervised study has be- 
come a familiar term in recent discussions of high- 
school education. The literature of method is replete 
with contributions on the various phases of teaching 
pupils how to study. "Directing Activity," conceived 
as a means of developing a new general method, is the 
real title of this presentation. "Directing Study" is a 
compromise title that will serve to emphasize the fact 
that the effort here is to present a working basis for a 
more productive classroom procedure than that which 
usually obtains under the recitation system. Super- 
vised study is too narrowly interpreted to serve this 
purpose. 

One of the most hopeful departures in these dis- 
cussions is the evident tendency to formulate methods 
of teaching upon a study of the learning processes of 
children. The conventional emphasis has been upon the 
requirements of the logical organization of subject- 
matter, irrespective of the subjective interests and ex- 
periences of the learner. 

Suggestive experiments have been made, the results 
of which are illuminating and have already begun to 
influence educational practice. As an example of the 
effect of this type of analysis and experimentation it is 
interesting to note the increasing disfavor in which 
the term recitation is held. Hearing lessons recited is 

59 



60 DIRECTING STUDY 

coming to be considered stupid, mechanical, deadly 
business. Home study, for the most part, is a myth 
in so far as those pupils who need it most are concerned. 
The practice of assigning lessons in a perfunctory man- 
ner with the expectation that somehow the lessons will 
be mastered is the corollary of the recitation system 
which has been perpetuated in the American school 
under the inertia of tradition. 

Supervised study, intelligently directed, bids fair to 
become the means by which a new and vital concep- 
tion of classroom activities is to be gained. On ac- 
count of the various uses of the term it is thought best 
to limit the scope of directing study to that proce- 
dure in the regular classroom which directs the ener- 
gies of pupils working forward. If a distinction is drawn 
between the recitation, as such, and directing study — 
these two activities constituting the major aspects of 
the class period — it will readily appear that the latter 
is the more important when productively developed 
and controlled. However, in this presentation and 
interpretation of supervised study, no such separation 
is contemplated. Directing activity (or study) is 
meant to be descriptive of a totally different concep- 
tion of the purpose of the classroom than that which 
is meant by the recitation. 

Before raising the problems suggested in the ad- 
ministration and development of directing study, it 
may be well to point out, in passing, other uses of the 
term supervised study. 

The General Study Room Merely an Administra- 
tive Device. — In all high schools having differentiated 
curriculums it is necessary to make provision for the 
free or unassigned periods which fall to pupils some- 



ADMINISTRATION OF DIRECTING STUDY 61 

what promiscuously. The general study room or study 
rooms are supervised either by a suitable person em- 
ployed for that specific purpose or by members of the 
instructional staff. Obviously, the pupils are concerned 
with their several individual studies. The only posi- 
tive direction of study would necessarily be general 
in character. For the most part routine factors are 
controlled, such as keeping the room orderly, manag- 
ing the work of pupils in a general way, seeing to it 
that each one attends to his own affairs. In so far as 
this free period supplements home study it is valuable 
and contributes definitely to the efficient management 
of the school. Yet, as a rule, the general study room 
is only a means intended to minister to the effective 
internal organization of the school, rather than toward 
the solution of the problem of teaching pupils how 
best to use their powers in study. In rare cases a 
supervisor of such a group might be competent to 
assist a large number of pupils in their individual 
work. 

It is conceivable that a teacher of conspicuous 
ability, broad experience, and technical skill could 
direct a relatively small group of pupils in a general 
study period in which different subjects were being 
pursued. This has been done successfully in isolated 
instances. Certain general directions are given to 
assist pupils in studying any kind of lesson. A teacher, 
supervising study in this manner, may be able to give 
specific and detailed assistance to pupils in many dif- 
ferent courses, depending upon the extent of his experi- 
ence and his breadth of scholarship. There is also in 
this connection valid ground for the assumption that 
generalized habits of application may be developed. As 



62 DIRECTING STUDY 

a general administrative proposition, however, there 
is little to be accomplished through the general study- 
room in the development of a special technic of super- 
vising study. The general study room is set apart as 
a convenient place for pupils to spend their free periods. 
It will be continued as a means to a definite end quite 
apart from the issue of directing study as presented 
in this discussion. Much valuable work may be ac- 
complished by pupils in the study period under the 
usual type of supervision. 

It is doubtful whether the best results can be secured 
from this general approach. The hiatus between sug- 
gestion and performance must be bridged in the class- 
room. No permanent improvement in teaching pupils 
how to study is to be expected until teachers grip the 
problem and develop a teaching procedure that in- 
tegrates directing study with other essential aspects 
of the class period. 

The Weaknesses of the Conference Hour De^ce. — 
The conference hour is sometimes utilized for the pur- 
pose of assisting pupils in getting their lessons. The 
limitations of this device are readily apparent. The 
pupil failing in his work or in need of making up lessons 
is a candidate for the conference period. The methods 
of work of the pupils are not scrutinized. The pre- 
vailing task is to make up lessons. The test applied 
is informational. A knowledge of the subject-matter 
is exacted. In the present writing, of course, no criti- 
cism is being urged against the acquisition of informa- 
tion. The only point raised in this connection is that 
the conference hour is not directed explicitly toward 
the development of better habits of study. More- 
over, most teachers pay little attention to the methods. 



ADMINISTRATION OF DIRECTING STUDY 63 

of work of the good pupils, little realizing that it is 
just as important to make their work increasingly ef- 
ficient as it is to be solicitous about the pupils whose 
work is unsatisfactory. The conference hour offers 
a limited opportunity to study the methods which 
pupils employ in their work, not only to discover their 
difficulties, but also to direct them in the more pro- 
ductive and economical use of their time and energy — 
including pupils of superior attainment as well as those 
of inferior ability. 

No Existing Devices Really Vital. — Another adminis- 
trative device is worthy of brief mention. It is the 
plan of arranging a free period some time in the school- 
day to which all the class sections of each class period 
report, respectively, once during each week. For ex- 
ample, the class sections in the first period of the day 
report on Mondays, not only to their regular classes, 
but also to the same teachers in the free hour. The 
class sections in the second period in like manner re- 
port on Tuesdays, etc. This plan enables the teachers 
to meet their pupils one extra period each week in 
small sections under classroom conditions. Oppor- 
tunity is offered to develop directed study in a limited 
way. There are complications in this plan, but on 
the whole it is more promising than the ordinary con- 
ference hour in that all pupils of the class section are 
included in the plan. 

There are other special types of practice and ex- 
perimentation intended to aid pupils in their study, 
such as the Batavia plan, controlled home study, the 
double-consecutive period, no home-study assignments, 
some features of which are incorporated in the follow- 
ing discussion. 



64 DIRECTING STUDY 

A New Procedure Imperative. — However desirable 
these various proposals and practices may prove to 
be in the development of improved habits of study — 
and no doubt conditions will continue to be such as 
to render some form of general supervision necessary — 
the conviction is growing that teachers themselves 
must become increasingly responsible for the eco- 
nomical and productive application of the principles 
and methods of directing study interpreted in terms 
of a new general method. Any external means, cal- 
culated to control study, may be conducive to better 
recitation procedure and also, for some pupils, a far 
better environment for systematic study may be pro- 
vided. Much might be said in support of any scheme 
which is designed to foster independent application, 
personal responsibility, and individual initiative in the 
pursuit of intellectual matters. It is not the purpose 
to enter into the controversy on transfer of training; 
\nevertheless, it is difficult to think of educational 
processes without including some such by-products 
as habits of concentration, habits of study, attitudes 
toward work. If pupils are to be taught how to study, 
the implication is that a more or less permanent change 
is to be effected in their habits of study. Whether the 
principles and conditions under which the best results 
are attained in particular courses of study can be ac- 
quired by formal presentation and study and subse- 
quently generalized is a moot question and may be 
dropped at once. The point of departure, herein pre- 
sented, lies in the practicability of the plan of having 
all teachers develop the essential features of directing 
study as a new classroom procedure. Instead of rely- 
ing upon external devices, teachers are to be given op- 



ADMINISTRATION OF DIRECTING STUDY 65 

portunity to redirect the recitation through internal 
readjustments — partly administrative, partly and vi- 
tally instructional. If directing study is to be devel- 
oped as a constructive and cardinal factor in classroom 
procedure, certain modifications in organization as 
well as in instruction are deemed necessary and de- 
sirable. 

A Longer Class Period. — The customary class period 
of forty minutes (net) is proving inadequate in the 
development of a new type of class period. A double 
consecutive period (approximately eighty-five min- 
utes) is objectionable as a general administrative prac- 
tice on the ground that an increase in the instructional 
staff is required beyond that which the great majority 
of high schools can support. 

A conservative demand would fix this increase in 
the instructional staff at one-fourth to one-fifth of the 
present staff. This estimate is based upon the prob- 
ability that a teacher would be assigned four or five 
class sections daily, instead of six under the single 
short class period. Waiving the fact that an increas- 
ing demand for better teaching would arise and there- 
fore a correspondingly larger budget, it seems inad- 
visable to urge the adoption of the double-consecutive 
period for all courses. 

It is doubtful, too, whether teachers generally would 
be able to conduct the work of pupils profitably for a 
double-consecutive period four or five days a week 
in the so-called non-laboratory subjects. This plan 
has been adopted as a rule in high schools for manual 
training, domestic science, and laboratory science (two 
or three days a week) largely as a matter of convenience 
in working out the daily schedule of classes. Excellent 



66 DIRECTING STUDY 

results have been secured in experimentally conducted 
classes in other subjects under the double-consecutive 
period. 

All things considered, a class period of sixty to 
seventy-five minutes seems to be an acceptable work- 
ing basis for all subjects in the programme of studies, 
for both the Junior and the Senior High School. If 
the Junior High School is housed in a separate build- 
ing, a slight modification in this particular plan may 
prove desirable. The reason for the broad statement 
is the fact that the secondary school period comprising 
the Junior and the Senior High Schools must be treated 
as an administrative unit in schools affecting approxi- 
mately 70 per cent of the pupils. Communities sup- 
porting high schools of ten teachers or less cannot af- 
ford, as a rule, to maintain separate buildings for Junior 
and Senior High Schools. Moreover, the argument 
for the six-six division of our twelve grades is too ob- 
vious for elaboration. 

It will require rigorous methods to establish a uni- 
form class period. In the first place, teachers in all 
departments may be required to take charge, regularly, 
of five class sections daily. 

No appreciable increase in the instructional staff is 
contemplated in this proposal, inasmuch as teachers of 
science, manual training, or domestic science would 
take charge of one to two additional class sections daily 
to offset, in part, the reduction from six to five class 
sections in other departments. Slightly larger sec- 
tions may be necessary in the latter case. Teachers 
who have heretofore been favored with three or four 
class sections, either with the full or partial double-con- 
secutive period, will doubtless enter a vigorous protest. 



ADMINISTRATION OF DIRECTING STUDY 67 

Readjustment of Subjects to a Uniform Class 
Period. — The validity of the claims of certain subjects 
for the exclusive advantages of the longer class period 
has not been fully justified, although plausible argu- 
ments are presented. The effect upon secondary edu- 
cation of allotting practically one-third of the pupil's 
school-day to manual training or domestic science has 
not been altogether satisfactory. The home-study 
problem has been intensified in other departments, 
both on account of the reduction of available free 
periods for study under school supervision, and on 
account of the subtle assumption that pupils carry- 
ing three instead of four courses involving home study 
could devote more time to each course. Not infre- 
quently high-school teachers announce that from one 
to one and one-half hours of out-of-class study are 
required in their particular courses, failing to multiply 
their time-requisition by three or four in order to gain 
a fair estimate of the time a pupil is expected to de- 
vote to outside study. Moreover, the double-consecu- 
tive period allotted to manual training and domestic 
science is effectively developing these subjects along 
the lines of shut-in school activities, whereas by their 
very nature they should be so administered as to re- 
quire concrete application in the home. The uniform 
class period must result either in a corresponding re- 
duction in the amount of credit given or to a type of 
supplementary home work in connection with these 
departments. There can be no question concerning 
the desirability of the latter alternative. 

Girls might very appropriately enlist the co-opera- 
tion of their mothers in the solution of problems aris- 
ing in cooking and sewing courses. The advantages 



68 DIRECTING STUDY 

would be clearly mutual. Parents encounter consid- 
erable difficulty in assisting their children in mathe- 
matics, science, and foreign languages. 

The case for laboratory science is not so clear. Yet 
the total time allotted to science will not be reduced; 
in fact, it will be increased. The distribution of time 
may present disadvantages in certain laboratory ex- 
periments. There are comparatively few experiments, 
however, which require more than one hour. There 
is something to be said in favor of breaking down the 
formal distinction between laboratory work and reci- 
tation in high- school science. 

Now that the claims of other subjects are being 
pressed, the demand being that the laboratory method 
should not be exclusively appropriated by any one or 
two departments, attention is being directed to the 
problem of equalizing time-schedule opportunities. 
The teacher of history, of English, of mathematics, of 
foreign language, is raising the question, very perti- 
nently, why these subjects should not also enjoy the 
benefits of "vested interests" in the distribution of 
classroom time and energy. Many difficulties of 
schedule-making will disappear with the adoption of 
this plan. Opportunities for vital redirection of class- 
room procedure in courses now given a single short 
period will be offered. The home-study problem may 
be radically changed in the manner suggested in the 
latter part of this chapter. The single uniform class 
period for all subjects, as recommended in this discus- 
sion, opens the way for fruitful reforms in high-school 
education. 

A Longer School-Day. — Incidentally the longer 
school-day is inevitable if the single uniform period is 



ADMINISTRATION OF DIRECTING STUDY 69 

to be adopted. Six class periods are highly essential 
in working out the daily schedule of classes. The single 
forenoon session must go. To carry out this plan the 
school-day should begin at 8.30 A. M., or earlier, and 
close at 3.30 p. m., or 4 p. m. (approximately), depend- 
ing upon the arrangement for the noon intermission 
and the general auditorium period. It should be 
readily apparent that any serious and practical con- 
sideration of curriculum problems must lead to the 
conclusion that courses in the various subjects should 
be given equal schedule advantages if they are to be 
properly developed. To one familiar with the place- 
ment of courses in a time schedule the importance of 
this point is obvious. 

With the longer school-day and class period, stock 
should be taken of the available time for home study. 
Not infrequently it is found that no allowance is made 
for the new arrangement. Teachers have been known 
to exact of the pupil an amount of work for home as- 
signment that could hardly be done in less than two 
hours of regular home study, in spite of the fact that 
the lengthened class period and school-day leave very 
little time for home study. It is not difficult to esti- 
mate the probable time available for home work. For 
the growing adolescent in the modern home, perhaps 
three hours could be set aside for home study with the 
adoption of the longer school-day. Boys and girls 
need some free time for recreation. The home makes 
certain demands. Music requires time for practice. 
There are certain legitimate social demands. More- 
over, it is well to bear in mind that there is a proper 
limit to the number of hours for real intellectual effort. 
Three hours would seem to be the maximum for home 



70 DIRECTING STUDY 

study. If the senior high-school pupil is carrying four 
heavy studies, and if one of his teachers clings to the 
old idea of one and a half to two hours on his partic- 
ular subject, other subjects will go begging for home 
study. The specialist is not always mindful of the 
fact that the high-school pupil has something to do 
in other directions. In the administration of directed 
study all these factors call for constant attention. A 
certain university professor known for his generosity 
in assignments of work and a relentless insistence upon 
thoroughness remarked when his students complained 
that they had no time left for their other studies: 
"Well, gentlemen, that's my opportunity. You elect 
snap courses in other departments. You must re- 
member that I am seeing to it that you shall not escape 
a sound education." This general attitude is some- 
times found among high-school teachers. Collegiate 
practices creep over into the high school. The special- 
ist can easily fail to appreciate the responsibilities of 
pupils living at home and the claims of other depart- 
ments upon the pupils' time and energy. It is an ex- 
ceedingly difficult and persistent administrative prob- 
lem to work out a fair and equitable distribution of 
time and energy among specialists. 

Even in the 9th grade the major part of real study 
should be done under the guidance of the teacher. 
This can be done in the longer class period when at- 
tention is directed to the work spirit, with no upper 
limit set for any pupil in the class group. Is it not 
possible to master cjth-grade mathematics by actually 
working at it seventy minutes a day, five days a week ? 
To be sure, some time in the class period will be de- 
voted to drill and general discussion and explanation. 



ADMINISTRATION OF DIRECTING STUDY 71 

Some pupils will need to find extra time for a real mas- 
tery of the course. A pupil confused in a given sub- 
ject may need to find whole half-days (Saturdays) 
when he can devote his energies uninterruptedly to 
the mastery of himself (and the subject in hand). 
This might well be done in the school under the direc- 
tion of the teacher. There are teachers who find such 
a plan highly efficient. Perhaps some objections would 
be raised to this extra work. This may not be the place 
or time to suggest a longer school-week. Yet teachers 
who have utilized an extra half-day on Saturday, now 
and again, to work with a few pupils having difficulty 
have found the investment paying dividends in better 
class work and more responsive pupils. Conference 
hours after school in the new plan of longer class 
periods with the longer school-day are not proving 
satisfactory. It is time for teacher and pupils to shift 
the emphasis to other things. The Saturday-morning 
conference in which a steady pull (perhaps exposure 
in some rare cases) can be had is commended as a pos- 
sibility for the pupil who is indulging in half-learning 
or for whom there is no mastery yet. 

Adjustment of the New Plan to the Junior and the 
Senior High Schools. — The uniform class period of 
sixty-five to seventy-five minutes adopted as a stand- 
ard for both Junior and Senior High Schools contributes 
to the efficient management of those schools which in- 
clude both sections in one organization. Pupils in the 
first and second years of the Junior High School should 
do practically all their school work within the school- 
day. The class period of one hour affords ample time 
in which to accomplish the desired results. The exer- 
cises of the hour are varied. No single activity need 



72 DIRECTING STUDY 

be carried to the point of fatiguing pupils. If manual 
training, domestic science, drawing, and music are 
offered, one of these exercises and four major studies 
would require five hours of the working-day for the 
pupil in the first two years of the Junior High School. 
Add to this schedule one hour of directed physical 
education, and it will be apparent that the school has 
exhausted its claims upon the pupil's time. It may 
not be wise to prohibit home study in these grades. 
On the contrary, any supplementary work of applied 
or other sort which pupils desire to carry on through 
their own initiative should be encouraged by the school 
and assistance rendered when possible. 

Beginning with the last year of the Junior High 
School home study should be expected. The general 
character of such study has been indicated. Since it 
is the continuance or completion of work already be- 
gun under the plan of directing study, the assignment 
varies with the individual pupils of the group. Prob- 
lems have been raised, goal ends or objectives are de- 
fined — something toward which to work; some plan 
of work is presented; ordinarily through the study 
lesson explicit preparation is made for the advanced 
assignment and the new work is properly begun under 
this procedure. Home study can be intelligently or- 
ganized. The impetus is given under the stimulating 
guidance of the teacher. Some knowledge of the pupil's 
methods of work is gained. Assignments may be made 
on the basis of individual needs. 

The Problem of Directing Study Within the Class 
Period. — Probably more significant than all other 
factors involved in the administration of this new 
general method is the treatment of the problem with- 



ADMINISTRATION OF DIRECTING STUDY 73 

in the class period. It has been proposed that prac- 
tically an even distribution of time be established 
between the recitation and supervised study — whatever 
the number of minutes allotted to the class period may 
be. In fact, a rigid arbitrary division has been made 
in some schools — thirty minutes for the recitation and 
thirty minutes for supervised study. At this point 
fundamental principles must be considered. 

Any formal procedure easily degenerates into a 
perfunctory, deadening, mechanical performance. An 
illogical, informal procedure is not necessarily the 
alternative. A large share of the enthusiasm for super- 
vised study has been the result of the conviction that 
through this activity, properly directed, the recitation 
system might be radically reorganized, if not aban- 
doned, and a classroom procedure substituted therefor 
which is conceived from a totally different point of 
view. 

If pupils are to "recite lessons" in the ordinary way, 
receive assignments as usual, be supervised by their 
teachers while they "learn their lessons" preparatory 
to further home study and subsequent recitation, there 
is little permanent value to accrue from the departure. 
Inflexible daily lessons, the formal presentation of 
vivisected and comminuted sections of the subject as 
a daily performance, the reiteration of facts under a 
system of testing with retrospective intention, are 
evidences of a mechanically conducted classroom cal- 
culated to develop passivity and conformity — a re- 
ceptive attitude of mind. Hearing lessons recited in a 
routine fashion cannot be accepted as the best type 
of classroom activity. 

The personal initiative of pupils must be cultivated 



Y4 DIRECTING STUDY 

and their productive energies developed as well as 
their powers of assimilation. The "problem method" 
is capable of extended application. The organization 
of units of instruction under a problem-solving situa- 
tion is possible in practically all high-school subjects. 
What is known as the study lesson may properly take 
the place of a large part of the recitation in the new 
class period. The formal presentation of subject 
wholes, or units of instruction, might very properly 
occupy the entire time of a class period. For two or 
three subsequent days the entire class period might 
be most appropriately devoted to individual work in 
which the teacher is consulting expert and adviser in 
work related to the unit of instruction previously pre- 
sented. Again, it may be perfectly obvious that the 
situation calls for alternation of class teaching and 
individual study within a given class period. The 
teacher must be given freedom to express his judg- 
ment in such matters. Flexibility is absolutely essen- 
tial. 

Teaching is, or ought to be, a profession, not a trade. 
To teach by "specifications" and "blue-prints" is to 
accept the principles of teaching on a trade basis. The 
real teacher must develop and display artistic quali- 
ties. This means that he must be able to measure the 
results of his own performances in terms of the effect 
produced upon the object of education — the pupil. 
The class period cannot be arbitrarily divided between 
two or more activities each of which is a variable factor 
in a larger unity. The recommendation is frankly 
urged that the disposition of the class period be left 
to the teacher. Supervisors and teachers under super- 
vision should be capable of constructive thinking. 



ADMINISTRATION OF DIRECTING STUDY 75 

The problem-solving attitude of mind is sorely needed 
in working out a classroom procedure fully adequate 
to present psychological and pedagogical demands. 

The practice of dividing the class period, devoting 
one part to formal supervised study and the other to 
the recitation of conventional sort, is disastrous in 
many directions. The teacher's work is reduced to 
police duty; the temptation is to keep order and to 
command pupils to study with no sense of respon- 
sibility for directing action. The pupil is tempted to 
prove an alibi when it comes to any further exertion 
in study. All the evils of the recitation system are 
perpetuated. 

A New Attitude of the Teacher Toward Pupil and 
Subject-Matter. — The technic of directing study re- 
mains to be mastered. It is a process which perpetually 
begins. Methods cannot be developed and reduced to 
algebraic formulae. Constructive supervision of teach- 
ing is the most effective means to be employed. In 
the professional courses for the preparation of teachers 
the initial work may be begun, particularly in develop- 
ing a point of view, and in giving some practice in 
self-criticism and self-direction. Attention to learn- 
ing processes as a basis for teaching procedure is a 
hopeful departure. An examination of the methods 
which pupils employ in their work is essential. Eco- 
nomical and productive methods must be discovered 
and pupils must be guided in the acquisition of these 
better methods of work. 

This new general method, intelligently directed, 
should be the means of discovering to the teacher and 
the pupils how best to organize, select, and apply sub- 
ject-matter; how to study to the best advantage; 



76 DIRECTING STUDY 

and how to distribute one's time and energy in the 
most effective manner. The habits of work of pupils 
should be studied and, to whatever extent possible, 
improved by the adoption of specific helps under the 
teacher's guidance. 

The new teacher in this new procedure should recog- 
nize the possibilities for excellence in particular lines 
of achievement among boys and girls. For example, 
the teacher may not be expected to know as much 
about wireless telegraphy as some boy, or as much 
about music as some girl, in his class. There is no dif- 
ficulty in meeting these situations. The teacher is 
not expected to be omniscient and expert in every 
direction. It has been assumed that the teacher should 
excel all the pupils in scholarship. May it not be a 
perfectly natural situation to find now and again some 
pupil or pupils who can excel their teacher in some 
given intellectual adventure? Why not recognize it? 
Only a stubborn insistence upon status prevents it. 
Those who have a large confidence in certain forms of 
tests and measurements would gain an illuminating 
experience by giving some tests to both teachers and 
their pupils under the same conditions. Such a test 
(the Thorndike W test) was given to a group of college 
seniors preparing to teach English and a group of 
high-school seniors. The median for the college seniors 
was higher. But the highest third of the high-school 
seniors did better than the highest third of the college 
seniors. In that test one college senior out of twenty- 
one, and six high-school seniors out of thirty-nine, 
made a perfect score. (The inference that these tests 
actually measure capacity is perhaps gratuitous. Such 
applications as this one may, however, serve a pur- 



ADMINISTRATION OF DIRECTING STUDY 77 

pose in a wholesome reduction of egotism if, perchance, 
humility is at a low ebb.) 

One is tempted to recommend that the supervisors, 
educators, administrators, and experts advocating 
tests and measurements should submit themselves 
frequently to similar testing with those upon whom 
they would practice, in order that they might study 
experimentally their own experience in taking such 
tests. Prospective high-school teachers ought to know 
that they are likely to have pupils in their schools who 
will be able to do just as good work in a new task as 
the teachers. It is possible, too, that some pupils may, 
at times, be able to excel their teacher in scholarship. 
By shifting the emphasis from status to emerging merit 
this fact may be frankly recognized. For the adult 
to find a youth more capable than himself in some bit 
of information or skill is an occasion for developing 
mutuality and a recognition of alternate leaderships. 
It suggests also the need of dynamic and active scholar- 
ship and a continuous moral analysis of procedure. 
Improvement of teachers in service through new 
courses, earnestly pursued, is a means of keeping alive 
a real scholarship, on-going and self-renewing. 

The fact that high-school teachers may have some 
pupil or pupils in their classes quite as able as them- 
selves in the performance of some particular task sug- 
gests the need of emphasizing certain unique functions 
of the teacher in our new procedure. The teacher 
ought to become an expert in directing activity. He 
should be able to excel in the role of a kind of glorified 
referee in the intellectual contest under the discussion 
method. He should become a lively consulting expert 
in assisting boys and girls in attacking subject-matter 



78 DIRECTING STUDY 

(problems). He should, in brief, become the recog- 
nized general manager of the varied activities of the 
laboratory-work period, seeing to it that energy is 
wisely directed and that results are economically and 
thoughtfully produced. A demonstrated leadership is 
the special function of the new teacher. Boys and 
girls are quick to respect capacity of . special sort. 
Scholarship is not less important in this emphasis. A 
new definition of it is no doubt required. Any ac- 
credited form of scholarship, dated in the past, will 
not be adequate. What is required is a usable scholar- 
ship, refertilized and increasing in the interaction of 
mind upon mind. But, if the new teacher is constantly 
gaining in special capacity in the administration of 
our new procedure by becoming more and more expert 
in managing situations in which there is great varia- 
tion of individual achievement, securing whatever 
unity out of self-activity is desirable, such a teacher 
will be able to exhibit excellence in leadership. That 
is his special mode of excellence. The pupil who excels 
his teacher in some other mode of excellence, even 
scholarship for the time being in some new adventure 
in which teacher and pupils have an even chance, that 
pupil can be recognized in the group for his special 
excellence. In passing, it may be fitting to remark 
that boys and girls soon acquire ability to detect any 
subtle dishonesty in the person who undertakes to 
camouflage his scholarship. The teacher who falls into 
the habit of saying, "Well, let's look that up for to- 
morrow," when in a doubtful position as to scholar- 
ship, may not expect to be held in the highest esteem 
as a scholar by wide-awake boys and girls. 

A New Attitude of Pupil Toward Work. — This new 
general method, efficiently directed, should serve to 



ADMINISTRATION OF DIRECTING STUDY 79 

develop the maximum working-power of each pupil. 
It may be made the means of eliciting the best from 
each pupil. A constant stimulus to excel is afforded. 
A working group, with varying individual attainments, 
is conceived to be possible in all classes. The procedure 
founded upon this conception encourages each person 
to discover economical and effective ways of attaining 
desired ends. The function of the new teacher is 
mainly to control situations that give rise to individual 
challenge, and to guide pupils in their co-operative 
thinking and doing. The institutional teacher has 
been concerned primarily with the imposed task. The 
aim has been knowledge or information as an end in 
itself, or possibly discipline, with slight emphasis on 
the content of the curriculum. The methods employed 
to secure these objectives have been developed upon 
the theory either of the memorizing school or the mind- 
training school. The recitation system belongs to 
these types of schools. 

Hearing lessons recited consumes the valuable time 
of teacher and pupils. The logical procedure is to re- 
quire the pupil to prepare his lesson outside of class. 
It is not strange indeed that "supervised study," so 
called, should be introduced as a substitute for home 
study and manipulated to all intents and purposes as a 
part of the recitation system. What is needed is a new 
point of view. The class period should be a laboratory 
hour — or, better, a working period to which pupils come 
as to a place of challenge. The teacher should be the 
director of thought and action. Surrounded by a 
wealth of raw material in a stimulating environment, 
the pupil under thoughtful guidance is capable of de- 
veloping his maximum working powers. Guidance 
does not mean mere supervision. It does not mean 



80 DIRECTING STUDY 

that pupils are to be made dependent upon the teacher, 
nor that work is to be made easy with no difficulties 
to encounter. Pupils should be assisted in planning 
their work. They need to be taught to use their powers 
of observation, induction, and deduction, in partic- 
ular projects, problems, exercises, topics, and courses. 

The immature pupil in isolated home study too fre- 
quently energizes far below his ability. He is likely 
to be confused as to the purpose and value of his ef- 
forts. Under the procedure suggested in this discus- 
sion the pupil works, for a time, under expert direction. 
What he does is checked and evaluated. He knows at 
once whether he is working along productive lines. 
He is taught to examine data, to think his way through, 
to arrive at conclusions for himself, and to submit his 
results to the group in which he is working. 

In the senior high school, particularly in the last 
two years, no pupil should ever be led to think he has 
finished the challenge. He ought to leave the class- 
room every day conscious of the fact that he has only 
begun his thinking upon some vital issue or principle. 

School Work Progressively Continuous — Not Di- 
vided into Definite Periods of Preparation and Reci- 
tation. — The essential feature of the new class period 
is the procedure of working forward under the direc- 
tion of the teacher. The subject-matter employed in 
this departure may not be radically different from that 
ordinarily used in the recitation system. The nature 
of its organization and method may need to be changed 
to meet the new conditions. The unit of teaching will 
be mentioned later. The emphasis on method should 
be shifted. Out-of-class study may be continued, the 
purpose of which, however, will not be primarily that 
of preparation for subsequent recitation. 



ADMINISTRATION OF DIRECTING STUDY 81 

An adequate account of the pupil's progress and 
attainment may be had both by individual checking 
of results by the teacher and by testing for under- 
standing and facility in further application of prin- 
ciples in class exercises. The efforts of pupils under 
the new procedure will be evaluated more and more in 
terms of ability to go forward — ability to make fruit- 
ful application of knowledges and skills. (Application 
as used in this connection includes its practical scope, 
but refers mainly to learning processes in which a way 
of thinking is gripped and then used in handling new 
data and new situations.) 

Home Work a Continuation of Study Begun in 
Class. — Directing study is designed to replace a large 
part of the old-fashioned recitation and to change the 
character of home study. In the formal presentation 
of the unit of instruction under class teaching or the 
study lesson, the problem is to engage the attention 
of all pupils in the group. The principles of direct- 
ing study are based upon a recognition of individual 
differences. Teachers readily discover enormous dif- 
ferences in performance. This fact alone should modify 
profoundly the character of home work. It might 
appropriately be described as unfinished business, and 
therefore a kind of work adapted to individual needs, 
instead of a common assignment of so many pages or 
problems for all pupils alike. That which is accurately 
begun in class and partially worked out may be further 
elaborated, refined, or verified in the home study. 

The Pupil, the Educative Unit.* — In the large high 
school the practice of classifying pupils in a given sub- 

* "The schoolrooms of the land too often present the spectacle of 
straight rows of identical desks at which sit children of the same age, 
supposedly endowed with the same instincts and therefore to be treated 



82 DIRECTING STUDY 

ject according to ability is sometimes found. Ob- 
viously this cannot be done in the small school, how- 
ever desirable such practice may appear to be. The 
accelerant-group idea is an attractive theory. Under 
collective teaching and the recitation system pupils in 
a given subject differentiate rapidly into two or more 
rather clearly defined static groups. The immediate 
temptation is to classify pupils under conventional 
labels, as bright, less bright, and dull pupils. The 
effect of such classification upon pupil and teacher is 
not altogether wholesome, although it may seem to be 
an efficient method. The pupil, once labelled, is usually 
a discouraged pupil. Moreover, any group or section 

all alike. And when the method fails, democracy is blamed instead of 
the mistaken science. . . . Instinct tends to describe us en masse. . . . 
Temperament emphasizes the differences. ... If temperaments could 
be adequately classified and a method of determining them could be de- 
vised, there would be made available an invaluable supplement to the 
'intelligence' tests. Until that comes the latter will be used to buttress 
fallacious arguments." (See Ellsworth Farris, American Journal of 
Sociology, September, 1921, "Are Instincts Data or Hypotheses?") 

The theory of instincts together with the recapitulation theory, ac- 
companied by the culture-epochs presupposition, cannot be relied upon 
to-day as a valid and valuable basis upon which to build educational 
theory and procedure. The extent to which our whole system of edu- 
cation has been organized upon the hypotheses derived from these doubt- 
ful theories can hardly be appreciated. Mythological constructions 
with a luxuriance of imagery have cluttered up our books on "methods" 
and "education." This aspect of educational development has been a 
part of the general disposition to rationalize opinion and belief. The 
scientist has not escaped. Dressing convictions up in the "livery of 
science" and backing up arguments with "cold figures" are common 
phenomena in both the "exact" and the social sciences. Wholly gra- 
tuitous hypotheses are readily constructed and accepted. The person 
who does not get beyond the rationalizing level of thinking is easily vic- 
timized by a spontaneous train of associations. The modern scientist 
will not fail to tie up his bias, personal equation, and prejudices in a 
sizable package and tag it as one set of facts which he must reckon with 
at every step of his investigation. 



ADMINISTRATION OF DIRECTING STUDY 83 

of pupils must within itself inevitably develop wide 
ranges of differences. Logically the scheme of classi- 
fication cannot be made a success with a division of 
classes only into accelerant and ordinary sections. 
The advantages are at best only relative. Any classi- 
fication presents the old problem of individual differ- 
ences. 

With the pupil, and not the class, as the educative 
unit, the argument for classification in terms of native 
ability or intelligence is not so obvious. The pupil 
has no static position in his group, when teaching con- 
cerns itself with directing activity by developing situa- 
tions to which pupils and teacher react under a prob- 
lem-solving procedure. Each pupil has the opportunity 
of working up to his best. No one of a top third is 
limited by the presence of a pupil perchance in a bot- 
tom third. The fact that one pupil solves fifty exer- 
cises in algebra while another solves only ten, both 
v/orking under the same organizing principle, does 
not support the view that these two pupils should be 
separated. The main point is to have each working 
up to his best ability. 

The indeterminate-assignment idea must find a 
practical application in this new type of classroom 
work. The problem does not consist in fixing a mini- 
mum content for the class as a whole, but rather in 
developing a clear perspective which sets no upper 
limit, at any time, for any pupil. The circle within 
which work is to be done may be described; each pupil 
within that circle should be given an effective freedom 
to work up to his best possibilities. 

The adequate teacher needs to think of extending 
the scope of initiative. The problem becomes increas- 



84 DIRECTING STUDY 

ingly one of finding abundant raw material to meet 
the challenge and needs of pupils at work. Wide use 
is made of supplementary texts and library, together 
with laboratory material and original problems and 
questions. The heart of directing study lies in making 
the class period productive for every pupil. This end 
can be attained by having each pupil work up to his 
maximum throughout the class period. 

The recitation system develops a receptive pupil 
— one who spends the hour in listening, absorbing, 
paying attention. The plan of directing activity keeps 
each pupil at the fork of the road with a problem or 
question to be worked out. Each pupil is using in- 
formation, principles, knowledge, in thinking his way 
through exercises of one sort or another — constructing 
a story, theme, report, etc. 

It is to be expected that pupils should work at dif- 
ferent rates. One commits ninety lines while another 
in the same class commits fifteen lines; one translates 
fifty lines while another translates twenty lines; one 
writes a half-dozen stories while another is struggling 
to turn off one, etc. Who after all does the best? Is 
it not a question of each measuring himself against his 
own record ? The problem for the adequate teacher is 
to direct activity. Boys and girls become competent 
assistants in the proper direction of energy just as soon 
as the repressive measures of collective teaching are 
removed. 

The pupil as the educative unit does not imply that 
the ideal situation would be to have a teacher for every 
pupil. On the contrary, the large class can be handled 
more productively under directing study than under 
the recitation system. Any conclusion that the pupil 



ADMINISTRATION OF DIRECTING STUDY 85 

is singled out and thought of in isolation is a gratuitous 
misapprehension of the essential principles of direct- 
ing study. Under the recitation system the pupil is 
singled out. The average time for each pupil before 
the class in the role of reciting is about one minute a 
day in each course, whereas in fruitfully directed ac- 
tivity every pupil in the class is working up to his 
maximum capacity. The "socialized recitation," at 
its best, partly describes the new departure. How to 
secure full participation of all members of the class is 
the central problem in this new general method of 
directing study. , 

Discussion is essential. Instead of reciting a com- 
mon assignment — a minimum essential content — 
profitable discussion is promoted when each pupil 
has worked out something of his own to contribute 
to the discussion of some organizing principle. The 
pupil in the bottom third should be given an oppor- 
tunity to contribute something which his superiors 
have not done. In developing a new principle as a 
tool for further thinking and use on raw material, all 
pupils are engaged in a common enterprise. No time 
is wasted in merely reciting ready-made answers to 
ready-made questions. 

Meeting the Individual Pupil on the Basis of His 
Own Rate of Accomplishment. — The common problem, 
subject whole, or unit of instruction, serves to unify 
the work of a class group. It is within the unit of in- 
struction that recognition of individual rates of ac- 
complishment is urged. Organizing principles of think- 
ing appropriately selected and practically integrated 
in terms of these teaching units, or units of instruction, 
must be given major consideration. 



86 DIRECTING STUDY 

Each course within a subject should be restated and 
organized with reference to a few basic centres. Means 
or plans of thinking one's way through subject-matter 
are beginning to receive attention. With a shifting 
of emphasis from the memorizing school and the mind- 
training school to the thought-provoking school under 
the conception of intelligently guided self-expression, 
these points of organization and methodology of 
courses of study will gain a new impetus and meaning. 

Pupils are not likely to improve habits of study 
through admonition. Some practical and vital means 
of gripping raw material must be made available. 

Class teaching is economical. It is socially and 
intellectually desirable. Supervised study, effectively 
employed, and class teaching are essentially phases of 
a productive form of classroom procedure, the validity 
and value of which have been demonstrated in a large 
number of instances. The one type of activity supple- 
ments the other. One may be regarded as a corrective 
as well as a reinforcement of the other. It is highly 
important that teachers examine the methods which 
pupils employ in study, observe the amount and kind 
of work which they can accomplish in a given time, 
guide them in the proper distribution of time and 
energy in so far as possible, and assist them in the 
development of a more efficient organization of working 
habits. The aim is to direct study along intelligent 
and fruitful lines by making explicit to pupils ways 
and means of planning procedure, of schematizing the 
search, of handling data, etc. Directing study may be 
a means in the general movement for the improvement 
of secondary education. 

Directing Study Possible Without Schedule Changes. 
— For those schools which are operated under a forty- 



ADMINISTRATION OF DIRECTING STUDY 87 

minute period, much that is urged in this argument 
may be applied in the development of the class period 
in a manner that places emphasis upon a problem-solv- 
ing procedure. The extent and character of home 
study would obviously vary with the length of the 
class period. The essential features of a redirected 
classroom procedure may be developed, in part at 
least, irrespective of the time element in the class 
period. 

Directing Study a Key to Further Advance in Edu- 
cational Readjustment and Guidance. — In view of the 
fact that the longer class period should enable teachers 
better to evaluate the intellectual and moral traits 
of pupils, a new avenue of approach to the study and 
administration of educational guidance may be dis- 
closed. This more intimate diagnosis and guidance 
should provide a means of a better understanding of 
the probable potential aptitudes and developing 
powers of pupils than is possible under the prevailing 
methods of high-school teaching. The success or 
failure of pupils might become a symptom which would 
point to a more rational practice of administering 
courses of study, not only with respect to teaching 
per se, but, in particular, to assignment and continu- 
ance of suitable courses in terms of individual needs. 
The inference that a pupil who is failing in a certain 
course should, on that account, be shifted to another 
course does not necessarily follow. This more inti- 
mate appraisal of achievement, working habits, and 
moral traits of pupils leads to no unvarying rule with 
respect to selection and continuance of courses, but 
rather should point the way to a more intelligent place- 
ment of all pupils — those of superior ability, as well as 



88 DIRECTING STUDY 

those of mediocre ability — than has obtained under 
the recitation system. 

The mechanical and arbitrary definition of credit 
units in terms of hours and "minimum essentials" — a 
system partly enforced, partly voluntary, but alto- 
gether unsatisfactory — may not be continued under 
an educational procedure which fosters personal initia- 
tive in a procedure which finds its underlying phi- 
losophy in a rational development of the life of each 
pupil. Different rates of progress, varying degrees of 
accomplishment, non-uniform amounts of work, are 
factors to be integrated into the complex educational 
practice of to-day. These variable factors must be 
recognized not in spite of but along with the urgent 
demands for uniformity of treatment of groups of 
pupils. How to use the available school machinery 
so that each pupil may be given the maximum oppor- 
tunity to develop his initiative is the crucial problem 
in this new departure. The recognition of individual 
needs within the system of class organization is possi- 
ble under fruitfully directed study. 

The practice in self-direction which pupils acquire 
in the secondary school should become an important 
factor in determining life-career motives. To assist 
each pupil to become increasingly intelligent in mak- 
ing his own choice, in estimating his own opportuni- 
ties, in appraising his own ability, is a fundamental 
principle to be observed in explicit attempts to formu- 
late a programme of educational guidance as well as 
vocational guidance. Whatever procedure contributes 
notably to a self-realizing process of education should 
meet with cordial support. Supervised study as inter- 
preted in this discussion emphasizes the cultivation of 



ADMINISTRATION OF DIRECTING STUDY 89 

personal initiative and self-expression through de- 
liberate methods of directing activity. Pupils are 
thrown on their own responsibility under, a guidance 
that is not crutching, but stimulating and thought- 
provoking. The character of their work is scrutinized 
mainly from the side of doing, constructing, produc- 
ing, building, thinking. The memorizing school with 
its recitation system and its devotion to class instruc- 
tion must be radically changed to meet the demands 
of this procedure and its corresponding emphasis on 
individual achievement. This intimate acquaintance 
with pupils at work under the type of directing study 
set forth in this discussion may become an important 
factor in the development of a more explicit form of 
educational guidance than has hitherto been conceived. 
Summary. — Two principles of major importance are 
suggested as warrant for the position urged: (i) The 
principle of personal growth, which emphasizes the 
building of the responsible person; (2) the principle 
of co-operative thinking and doing in which the em- 
phasis is placed upon the individual as a member of a 
working group under competent leadership within a 
controlled environment. By an integration of these 
two principles the school through its procedure con- 
tributes largely to the working out of individual liberty 
regulated by law. Such a procedure, productively 
directed, is a means of obviating the deadening effects 
of regimental uniformity, and also a positive method 
of deformalizing education, while at the same time 
assuring a wholesome development of the genius for 
co-operation through which the highest and best ex- 
pression of individualism and freedom may be realized. 



CHAPTER III 

THE LEARNING PROCESS 

Hortatory Pedagogical Ethics. — No command is 
more frequently given in the classroom than this gen- 
eral type: "Pay attention, class!" "Study your 
lesson ! " "Be careful now, Susan ! " " Think, John ! " 
Pupils are exhorted to think, to study, to follow direc- 
tions. Little is known about the actual behavior of 
the mind in mastering the situation in hand. How 
We Think is the title of a very suggestive book by 
John Dewey. An understanding and appreciation of 
the nature of thinking might help many a teacher in 
the development of special technics designed to assist 
pupils in the initiation, at least, of effective ways of 
using the mind. Merely to exhort the pupil to think 
leaves the situation in a negative state. If the pupil 
does think after being commanded to do so, the credit 
for doing so belongs mainly to the pupil. Even so, 
what is done may be due to something like "the heave 
of the will." In other words, the results we get by 
hortatory methods can in no sense be attributed to a 
deliberate and explicit analysis of study habits or of 
the way the mind works. 

No illusion is entertained that we shall ever be able 
to examine in detail the processes of the mind, either of 
our own mind or that of another. In the problem 
raised here the expectation is that our attitude toward 
the learner's difficulty may be appreciated, and per- 

90 



THE LEARNING PROCESS 91 

haps modified, as we learn to apply psychology and 
related sciences to the art of teaching. The real ques- 
tion is, are we able now to analyze the learning process 
and upon the analysis organize procedures that will 
enable the pupil to use his powers effectively and pro- 
ductively and somewhat deliberately in the mastery 
of school problems? Or, shall we go on telling pupils 
to lift themselves by tugging away at their boot-straps ? 
It may be that we shall get a very short distance be- 
yond the stage of commanding pupils either politely 
or abruptly "to think" or "to study," until we have 
built a usable body of new experience based upon a 
study of the biological foundations of human behavior. 
Wholesome exhortation is not to become taboo. 
Human nature requires an inordinate amount of per- 
suasion. Much that teachers do is done on the "tick- 
lish skin of poor humanity." The good teacher knows 
how to make use of judicious praise. It is very difficult 
to teach boys and girls, when their chief object is not 
to be taught. Let any child who tests low get to know 
it and we might as well brand him as incompetent. 
If his school work has been hard before, the peda- 
gogical scarlet letter, C, tacked on him makes it more 
so. "What's the use?" he will say and with it initia- 
tive drops out of sight. There is no assurance that 
education is about to become so scientific and imper- 
sonal as to warrant the belief that incentives to work 
may be dismissed. The cultivation of all. those in- 
fluences which contribute to worthy effort, steady 
application, relentless concentration should be held in 
the highest esteem. All those who practise the art 
of education with real boys and girls know the mean- 
ing of this proposition. It is the essence of any social 



92 DIRECTING STUDY 

interpretation of teaching that much stimulation to 
effort shall be employed. No doubt any adequate 
understanding of the pupil's study habits will tend to 
increase, rather than to diminish, the encouragers to 
work. At all events let us be clear that the pupil is 
not to be set off in more or less isolation and told to 
"paddle his own canoe" as best he can, or to work 
out his own salvation by sheer force of will. Mutual- 
ity, a shared life, an honest give-and-take, will be even 
more prominent in a procedure in which some appre- 
ciation of the learner's problem is indicated than is 
the case in any mechanical theory of education. 

Teacher Study. — If a new general method is to be 
initiated in which an important factor shall be a recog- 
nition and appreciation of the learning processes (habits 
of work) of pupils, then it would appear that teachers 
should study their own habits of work, their own learn- 
ing processes, their own intellectual method in order 
that they may approach this new procedure with some 
sympathetic understanding of the problem. A popular 
notion prevails with respect to teaching pupils how to 
study. All sorts of advice have been offered. For the 
most part rules and regulations have been suggested 
relating to certain external conditions, such as regular 
hours for study, favorable environment, proper bodily 
conditions. Another type of suggestion has been some- 
what hortatory in character such as "Read the book," 
" Concentrate attention," "Use your mind." As stated 
above, these forms of advice should be continued. 

An interesting set of reactions came to the attention 
of the writer upon the request that his coworkers 
present a statement of the most significant thing 
teachers in service might do to improve their teaching. 



THE LEARNING PROCESS 93 

The report which provoked keenest discussion was 
this one: "I find that the most significant thing I can 
do to improve my teaching is to set myself the task of learn- 
ing something which is, comparably speaking, as difficult 
for me to master as the task I set my pupils is for them 
to master, and in mastering my new problem to make a 
careful, objective, analytical, and introspective study of 
my own habits of work in learning what I set out to mas- 
ter." To do this heroic thing may be too great a shock 
to the teaching profession. Actually to set out to 
learn a new language, or to commit to memory Para- 
dise Lost, or to learn to play chess, or to master any 
one of a thousand things that might be mentioned, and 
actually to make a study of the method by which this 
thing is learned, keeping a diary of one's experience — 
that requires heroism. Yet, may this not be the price 
we shall have to pay in order to orient ourselves in- 
telligently and scientifically to this subtle and difficult 
problem of teaching boys and girls how to study? It 
may sound quite dogmatic to assert that teachers will 
not be prepared to enter into a sympathetic appre- 
ciation of the learner's actual problem until they them- 
selves have examined critically their own habits of 
work under some controlled experiment in the learn- 
ing process. Nevertheless, it may be urged that 
reading about a problem of this sort is necessarily 
academic and prepares no one for an intelligent under- 
standing of the real problem confronting the teacher 
who would become a director of activity. 

In passing, it may be fitting to remark that the child 
has done considerable thinking before entering school. 
He is not taught to think any more than he is taught 
to walk or swim. By the maturing processes of life 



94 DIRECTING STUDY 

under biological principles and social controls these 
activities develop. We may not teach the boy how 
to swim until he does some swimming, and the essen- 
tial conditions for that performance are the boy and 
water deep enough for the operation of the laws of 
displacement and the stimulus to effort. After the 
achievement of some kind of walking or swimming 
something can be done (taught) in respect of changing 
or modifying the stride or the stroke. The popular 
notion prevails that boys and girls may be, yea ought 
to be, taught how to study. It may be that we shall 
have to make a similar presupposition and allege that 
unless there is studying already going on little can be 
accomplished in seeking to improve methods of study- 
ing. And just as swimming may be greatly improved 
by proper instruction and training, so studying by the 
same token may be very greatly improved. Dealing 
then with the problem of how to study means that we 
do not begin de novo with the development of study- 
ing or thinking, as such. That is a quality of the hu- 
man already there, in some measure at least, to be 
directed into productive lines of response. So much 
may be assumed for the individual in full and func- 
tional possession of his powers. Moreover, some mea- 
sures need to be adopted antecedent to any effective 
direction in the how of studying, such as having a boy 
who wants to learn or who wants to be taught. To 
bring about that state of mind it may be necessary 
to "adopt the constitution." Effective freedom in 
learning often becomes possible after that event. 

Teaching pupils how to study resolves itself as a 
problem into an examination of the pupils' habits of 
work and the development of technics by which these 



THE LEARNING PROCESS 95 

habits may be modified in the direction of economical 
and efficient agencies in the production of results de- 
sired in education. There is no promise here of de- 
veloping a technic that will enable the teacher to get 
inside the pupil's mind, somehow, to burnish it up 
and correct defects real or imaginary. No panacea is 
being offered in that sense. It is frankly recognized 
that each individual must know more about his own 
intellectual method than anybody else. What may 
be done in controls will be found in the cultivation of 
those influences which may induce the learner to build 
for himself his own best intellectual method, his own 
best habits of work. For each individual must ac- 
tually create his own personality by his own activity. 

Now, the suggestion is urged that the teacher (and 
the supervisor) will be able to direct the pupil in the 
building of better habits of work, assist him in gain- 
ing a sense of self-mastery and a sense of adequacy in 
using his mind, teach him how to study in the most 
efficient manner, if he, the teacher, has gained a definite 
insight into his own habits of work through an ex- 
perimentally controlled study of some achievement in 
learning. Two examples of this type of analysis are 
included here merely for illustrative purposes. They 
are both rather simple problems; they have the ap- 
parent merit of being objectively and, in a way, quanti- 
tatively measurable. In other words, the learner may 
keep a record of successive performances with a bit 
of tabulation. Introspective notes kept with the tabu- 
lations afford material for raising productive ques- 
tions for discussion of educational dogmas of various 
sorts. 

i. The first one is the recognition of a visual pat- 



96 DIRECTING STUDY 

tern, a simple drawing (meaningless) made up of 
straight and curved lines with angles in a somewhat 
regular succession. The figure is exposed for about 
two seconds some five or ten times in succession with 
time enough between exposures for the respondent to 
reproduce as much of the figure upon each exposure 
as he can. Each attempt of the respondent is recorded 
on a separate card and turned down after each record 
is made. After the experiment these cards are ar- 
rayed in order and a tabulation is made of the number 
of "corrects" of straight lines, curved lines, and angles 
in each attempt at reproduction of the visual pattern. 
Such notes of the respondent's introspective analysis 
as can be given are recorded. This experiment in learn- 
ing is quickly done. It is merely suggestive as to 
method. Some interesting observations may be made 
by working rather stressfully the method of analogy. 
Certain inferences about school practices may be rein- 
forced. 

A, p. 97, is the visual pattern used in this experi- 
ment. B represents the successive steps of a learner 
in mastering the pattern — an adult of some years of 
teaching experience and a person of methodical habits. 
Nine attempts were made.* 

The first part of the pattern was mastered in the 
first trial to the extent of four lines in correct order. 

In the second trial the first 3 lines were held and 
the 4th lost; difficulty was encountered in the 5th and 
6th lines. Obviously attention was being directed 
vigorously to the middle part of the figure. 

In the third trial the 4th line was corrected and 
* Judd, C. H., Psychology of High School Subjects, chap. III. 



t 2 3. 




Um» 



«uy^ 



12^ 



W4 U^i, 

3 



'M 



** 



U^4 



THE REPRESENTATIONS IN EACH STEP TELL THE STORY 
OF THIS RESPONDENT 



98 DIRECTING STUDY 

progress was made toward mastery of the middle part 
of the figure; the angle between lines 5 and 6 was re- 
corded. Note the fact that lines 7 and 8 are correctly 
reproduced. 

In the fourth trial there is a loss of two points over 
the third. Lines 7 and 8 do not appear. The central 
part of the figure is still holding attention. 

In the fifth trial a distinct gain is made. Line 5 is 
correctly reproduced. The gain in the third in re- 
spect of lines 7 and 8 is still submerged. 

In the sixth trial the pattern is correctly reproduced 
through the 8 th line and it would appear that the 
lines are now learned up to that point. No break- 
down appears in the last three trials. 

In the seventh trial, the pattern is completed with 
the exception of the 10th line; the curve is represented 
in the wrong direction. 

It is significant that that same error recurs in the 
eighth trial. 

The ninth trial resulted in a perfect reproduction in 
so far as the order of straight and curved lines go and 
the general form of the pattern. 

The respondent was aware of difficulty in the mid- 
dle part of the figure, beginning with the second trial. 
In the analysis mention might have been made of the 
angles and the oblique lines, size of angles and length 
of lines. It has been thought best to make the analysis 
as simple as possible. 

It is hardly necessary to say that no two individuals 
would show the same progress in this simple bit of 
learning. Any one can test it and acquire first-hand 
data on individual differences. Obviously an array 
of the results of a dozen individuals would disclose 



THE LEARNING PROCESS 99 

many points of difference depending somewhat on ex- 
perience, set of the mind, and all sorts of variables in 
the human situation. One outstanding feature of 
them all, however, is a general scheme of mastery; 
improvement is going on in each one; gains and losses 
are recorded; the figure is vigorously attacked in some 
particular part from time to time. As a rule, the first 
part of the figure is attacked first and some two or 
three lines of the first part of it are held in correct posi- 
tion throughout the experiment. Occasionally an 
individual is found who attacks the last part of the 
pattern first, or selects some striking part of the middle 
of the pattern. In view of the fact that no two persons 
work exactly alike, the number of try-outs before a 
complete mastery is gained varies; in this particular 
visual pattern the number of exposures runs from six 
or seven up to twelve or fifteen for persons of about 
the same general experience as that of the respondent 
given above. 

When we come to the early stages of learning, let 
us say with the child in his first efforts to master words, 
no such elaborate organization of experience is found 
as that for the adult facing the problem of the recog- 
nition of the visual pattern. One's orientation to the 
figure is a tremendously significant factor. Consider, 
for example, the child's first steps in the mastery of 
the letters in the word cat. He is confronted with a 
visual pattern quite as complex for him as this mean- 
ingless pattern is for his teacher. Up and down, right 
and left, the order of succession of lines, methods of 
combining and grouping — all these habits of mind 
constitute a part of the background for the adult. The 
child may be only in the initial stages of such a com- 



100 DIRECTING STUDY 

plex organization. Hence, a thing which is perfectly- 
easy for the teacher may be most confusing and difficult 
for the pupil. We as teachers need to be reminded ever- 
lastingly of backgrounds. 

It will be suggestive to think of each one of the steps 
in the illustration above as a day, a week, or a month 
in a bona-fide learning enterprise in school, such as nine 
days in a particular topic (challenge) or principle in 
geometry, nine weeks in the pursuit of the essentials 
of English grammar, or nine months in the first year 
of a foreign language. Some appreciation of the prob- 
lem of the learner may be gained by working the 
analogy for all it is worth. May it not happen that 
the pupil encounters in the fourth or fifth week (step 
or stage), for example, some confusion comparable to 
that indicated in the study of the visual pattern ? Or 
may it not be perfectly possible to find the pupil be- 
wildered over the mass of brute facts about the fifth 
or sixth day in a study of Henry VIII and his wives 
or what not ? To be sure, there is no regularity in the 
appearance of difficulties in learning; they do not come 
by the clock at all. This is no time to talk in terms of 
finality, absolutism, or dogmatism. Only the general 
scheme of a unit of learning may be laid out. What 
happens in stages of learning will always be unique. 
Each individual will exhibit his own mode of behavior; 
even that will be a changing order. The individual is 
too complex, of too multiple warp and woof, for prophecy. 
No logic would enable a most intelligent person con- 
fronted for the first time with the elements oxygen 
and hydrogen to predict that, when brought together 
in a chemical union, water would be the product. It 
would be just as absurd to try to tell in advance of the 



THE LEARNING PROCESS 101 

journey what the form of the pattern would be in the 
fifth or tenth step as it would be to lay claim to an 
omniscience that would enable one to predict the fif- 
teenth move ahead in a game of chess. 

This example of learning, above, can be carried 
through in five minutes. And yet if any one with a 
pinch of scientific imagination will go through with 
such an experiment, and reflect upon his own experi- 
ence in terms of it, a totally new slant on the exceed- 
ingly complex problem of learning may be gained, as 
well as a way of thinking about teaching decidedly 
productive in outlook. It merely illustrates a possible 
method. The entire series of trials should be regarded 
as a unit. If the pattern could have been reproduced 
upon the first exposure there would have been no prob- 
lem of learning; the pattern would have been too easy. 
Viewed as a unit, there is evidence of progress through- 
out the experiment. There were apparent breakdowns; 
some things learned were forgotten, to use the con- 
ventional pedagogy of the classroom. A truer way to 
view it is to say that these mistakes are evidences of 
progress. Just what is going on in habit formation 
and in shifting of attention may not be known. The 
significant fact is progress toward essential mastery. 
The exact nature of the processes of organization is 
not understood. 

By using such an experiment as a means of initiat- 
ing discussion of the process of learning, a whole nest 
of real problems may be disclosed. The pupil, for ex- 
ample, encounters difficulty in the third week of He- 
brew or geometry. Teachers have been known to 
pronounce final judgment upon the capacity of the 
pupil to learn it at a corresponding stage in the whole 



102 DIRECTING STUDY 

process or unit of learning. It would be easy to dis- 
miss him from the class. "Take him out. He can't 
learn my subject. Put him in typewriting, manual 
training, or cooking. He cannot do synthetic think- 
ing." This has a familiar ring even to-day in the Amer- 
ican high school. The analogy may not be overworked 
if it is suggested that the pupil may be in a stage of 
learning comparable to the third or fourth step in the 
case of B above. Pupils do not learn the fine points 
of the game with a regimental uniformity. Just as a 
boy may work for weeks on the trapeze before he gains 
a sense of fine adjustment, so he may diligently pursue 
a new subject like geometry or technical grammar 
many weeks (six to ten or more) before he begins to 
see what the thing really means. If each trial for B 
above represented one week's or one month's work in 
a foreign-language study, stenography, or chemistry, 
would it not be perfectly clear that mastery does not 
come in a day, and would it not be equally clear that 
mistakes and partial achievement are evidences of 
progress? Certainly the unit of learning should be 
studied with the utmost concern. Dismissing the pupils 
from the course will not improve either the course or teach- 
ing. It is too often a practice by which responsibility 
is escaped. 

Another observation from this simple illustration of 
a learning process in the recognition of a visual pat- 
tern is helpful in every-day teaching. A thing is 
taught one day with great emphasis; a lucid expla- 
nation is made; pupils exhibit every external mani- 
festation of perfect understanding. The next day a 
bewildering situation arises. Nobody knows any- 
thing about it. What was brought out so vividly 



THE LEARNING PROCESS 103 

seems to have evaporated. Stretching again the an- 
alogy for all it will bear, let us consider the matter in 
terms of the stages of learning in the case of the 
visual pattern. Suppose the thing in question is rep- 
resented by the third trial above in which the 7th 
and 8th lines were learned, and that the fourth and 
fifth trials above represented the next two days when 
the teacher siphons the vacuums in quest of the lost lines 
— in quest of the thing so vividly taught only a day 
or two since. Teachers have been known to grow 
quite impatient over this situation. The issue is ex- 
ceedingly complex. So many times we find these new 
concepts and facts introduced into our classroom work 
playing hide and seek with each other. It is the way 
of learning, the way of habit formation. Steady and 
persistent practice gradually consolidates the lines until 
the whole stands out in clear perspective. Perhaps we 
should expect some facts in the learning process (in 
the mass-meeting of the mind) to stand aside when 
some commanding fact rises to do senatorial duty. 
What the pedagogue brands as mistakes may be after 
all real evidences of progress. The reason for the tem- 
porary timidity of a shy fact may be due to fixation of 
attention upon a vital part of the process quite over- 
shadowing for the time being a non-essential factor, 
relatively speaking. In the illustration above it is 
evident that the middle part of the figure was demand- 
ing attention. Concentration at the point of major 
difficulty released the grip on a certain gain in the 
third trial. Up through the fourth and fifth trials 
these two items (7th and 8th lines) dropped outside 
the focus of attention, out in the fringe or twilight of 
consciousness, perhaps; but they were not lost (for- 



104 DIRECTING STUDY 

gotten) necessarily. In bringing together the items of 
experience in a new synthesis in subsequent trials, all 
these apparently forgotten elements were gathered up 
in perfect order. So it may be in every vital learning 
process. 

It would be a gratuitous misapprehension to infer 
that such a study as this experiment contemplates 
would lead to maudlin sympathy or soft pedagogy. 
On the contrary, a genuine sympathy based upon some 
shadow of scientific understanding of the nature of 
the learning process might well be expressed in terms 
of intellectual severity and uncompromising concen- 
tration. The argument is not to accept " mistakes" 
apologetically, but rather to see them in a much larger 
matrix of learning than is usually the situation in the 
daily lesson emphasis. 

Let the supervisor and inspector take warning. 
They may happen round when the learning stages are 
in evidence only to the teacher, something comparable 
to the fourth and fifth steps in this experiment. They, 
too, need to go through this type of critical examina- 
tion of their own learning processes in some controlled 
experiment if they would not lose their pedagogical 
souls. It is so easy to indulge in post-mortems about 
teaching. Visitors' remarks may be perfectly honest 
yet inane. Folk, seeing the game from the bleachers, 
may talk just more or less interesting gossip. They 
may utterly fail to appraise justly what they think 
they see; they may not see what they think they see. 
Calling a thing it does not make it exactly it. The 
danger lies in the habit of squeezing life into some alge- 
braic formula. 

Moreover, the measurer of the product (the results) 



THE LEARNING PROCESS 105 

of education should be aware of the fact that very 
much indeed depends upon the stage in which the 
learner happens to be when examined. The learner 
would make a poor showing if caught in certain stages 
of the developing process as indicated in the illustra- 
tion. It is one thing to measure a product; it is a 
vastly different thing to guide the learner in the pro- 
duction of results. The latter is the eternal problem 
of the teacher. We should remember, too, that a sub- 
sequent performance may be the means of clarifying 
a previous bit of work. The essential element which 
might enable the student to hold in solution past ex- 
periences may come relatively late in the development 
of a subject made up of two or more courses of instruc- 
tion. Algebra, for example, may be an illuminating 
reagent for certain arithmetical processes; a foreign 
language may clear up grammatical difficulties in the 
vernacular. 

2. Another example is included for purposes of illus- 
tration and method. The digits, i, 2, 3, and 4, can be 
arranged in twenty-four different combinations.* Two 

* 1342, 4213, 3412, 4312, 2413, 2143, 1243, 2431, 2134, 1432, 3421, 
1324, 4132, 3241, 3142, 4231, 3124, 1423, 2341, 4123, 3214, 2314 (1234 

and 4321). 

If the number of digits is doubled, 1 to 8 inclusive, there are 40,320 
possible combinations, not just twice 24. This fact merely suggests 
the complexity of the problem of learning and the difficulty of evaluat- 
ing any single trait, quality, or factor when three or more variables 
are involved. In the attempt to determine reading ability it is ex- 
tremely difficult to weigh three such qualities as rate, comprehension, 
hardness. There is no graphic device by which to represent simul- 
taneously these three traits. Correlations may be worked out be- 
tween any two of them. Unless the third factor in every case is checked, 
the results may be misleading. For example, a high rate of reading 
with a high degree of comprehension may be exhibited in relatively 
simple material, or in material that at one time was difficult for the 



106 DIRECTING STUDY 

of these are rejected in the experiment — the 1234 and 
the 4321 combinations. Twenty- two small cards are 
used and upon each one is written one of these com- 
binations, as 4132, 3412, 1243, 1342, 2341, etc., until 
the twenty-two combinations are written. The opera- 
tor exposes the first card in the series, turns it down; 
then exposes the second one, turns it down; and be- 
fore exposing the third one the respondent records the 
first one. Each exposure should be about two seconds 
in duration, and the interval between exposures about 
ten seconds. The second one is recorded after the 
third one is turned down, and so on through the 
twenty-two cards. The last card to be exposed in 
each trial is the first one. By so doing the respondent 
is holding the last number in mind while getting the 
next one (the first) on its second exposure. After a 
few trials, perhaps three to five, the cards should be 
shuffled so that the respondent may not memorize the 

learner, but has become familiar through study. The rate may be 
very low in very difficult (new) material, and with it a high degree 
of comprehension. Other possibilities are obvious. No criticism is 
being raised against standard tests as such. The only issue urged in 
this connection is the complexity of the problem of learning. In the 
learning process the ability of the learner in using the capital letter 
and ability in placing the "sacred comma" in denoting the possessive 
are hardly comparable magnitudes; the latter may be a hundredfold 
more difficult at a given stage in learning. After responses are reduced 
to the copy-mind level a high degree of certitude may be established in 
comparing results. Tests of all sorts, however, fail to throw any con- 
siderable light ahead on the problems of learning. The statistical method 
is unreliable in dealing with the probability curve. The mathematics 
of variability or relativity of number is essential in making any ade- 
quate study of the relative frequency of traits in a complex. The way 
a few simple inert digits behave in these kaleidoscopic patterns of num- 
ber combinations ought to suggest to the student of human behavior 
something of the complexity of the problem of appraising elements or 
traits which are in constant flux. 



THE LEARNING PROCESS 107 

series. The order of the number combinations should 
be listed in a column after each new shuffling. 

The respondent after each complete run of the series 
of numbers arrays his results opposite the correct list 
and records the number of "rights" and "wrongs" as 
well as "attempts." The omission of a digit or the 
displacement of a digit in the order of digits in a par- 
ticular combination is, in either case, recorded as an 
error. For example, if the number is 4132, and the 
respondent writes 1432, two errors or "wrongs" are 
entered and two "rights." If the number is 1342 and 
the respondent writes 4132, three "wrongs" and one 
"right" will be recorded. One "wrong" rarely occurs. 
The respondent is directed to write four digits each 
time, using o if need be to fill in a four-place number 
(although the o to the left of whole numbers would 
have no significance mathematically). The o would 
be rarely employed. 

One respondent carried this experiment through a 
period of five weeks, recording the results of his work 
and making notes of an introspective character each 
day. At each sitting the series was run through twice. 
The percentage of "rights" was 34 per cent the first 
day. After a period of three weeks' practice the record 
was held consistently for the last two weeks above 
90 per cent of "rights," the highest point being 98^ 
per cent of "rights." No perfect score was made. 
In this particular curve of learning there was no evi- 
dence of an intermediate plateau where the respondent 
maintained a certain level for a few days. The level 
at the end of the period represented a stage in learning 
in which further practice apparently led to no improve- 
ment. 



108 DIRECTING STUDY 

It is not possible to include any considerable part 
of the respondent's introspective notes. A few may 
prove illuminating. Bearing in mind the fact that 
two number combinations had to be held in memory 
at every step in the procedure, one progressively dis- 
appearing as soon as written, the other appearing at 
once — a moving series almost kaleidoscopic in char- 
acter — the reader may know that the respondent finds 
himself in a state of confusion at the beginning of the 
practice. There is nothing comparable to beginner's 
luck in this experiment. The law of chance, whatever 
it is in this problem,* does not seem to operate in the 
learner's favor. While it would seem to be a perfectly 
easy thing to write four digits in some order, the fact 
of the business is these simple characters seem to con- 
trive to get in the way of each other. The order of 
the digits in the number combinations, shifting as it 
does in each new set, requires intense concentration 
to hold any digit in its proper position. 

May it not be that the pupil finds himself in a some- 
what similar state of confusion in the initial stages of 
a new subject when new concepts and new arrange- 
ments of ideas come flooding his mind in rapid succes- 
sion? After the teacher has critically examined his 
own habits of learning some difiicult thing, he, at least, 
should be aware of such possibilities in his pupils as 
they set out upon the adventure of mastering a for- 
eign language, geometry, or any new enterprise. 

These four simple digits in the experiment furnish a 
basis for many interesting observations. In scoring 
the results it will be recalled that the cleavage did not 

* The law of chance in this type of problem may be proportionate to 
the square of displacement. That is not at all certain. 



THE LEARNING PROCESS 109 

fall between "rights" and "wrongs," as is so often 
assumed in tests and examinations. The number com- 
binations were not reproduced as wholly right or wholly 
wrong with any high degree of regularity. Results 
could be partially correct with many variations. 

In measuring the child's spelling, a word is checked 
off as right or wrong. That is the way the statistical 
method is operated. The temptation is to tell statis- 
tical lies about the learner: indulgence in pathological 
fabrications is only one step removed. The child spells 
arithmetic, a rith me tec. It is marked wrong despite 
the fact that three syllables out of four and nine letters 
of the ten are correctly recorded. Why not weight 
the results in some such manner ? As a matter of fact 
the word is perhaps psychologically more right than 
wrong. One syllable or one letter may not be as dif- 
ficult as another in the word. In the learning process 
it is probable that equal units of differences will never 
be established. But, it is just as sound and scientific 
to weight syllables and letters as it is to try to work 
out a scale with words as units. To the learner plac- 
ing of letters according to conventions in spelling may 
be quite as complicated as the recognition of the num- 
ber combinations in the experiment. 

This dilemma is much more evident in the solution 
of problems or situations involving several steps in 
which single stages may in themselves be perfectly 
correct. In fact, nine-tenths, more or less, of the solu- 
tion may be correct. To strike it off with a right or 
wrong appraisal leaves out of consideration the whole 
business of learning and its psychological implications. 
Aside from expressing in mathematical, statistical, 
and quantitative terms the exact and verifiable values 



110 DIRECTING STUDY 

for different parts of any learning process, it must be 
evident that the elements are in constant flux in the 
stream of life. The learner throws down the type, as it 
were, and reconstructs a new combination or synthesis 
out of the elements employed in thinking. One syllable 
of a word is never just as difficult, nor half as difficult, 
nor one-tenth as difficult, as another for the actual 
learner, statistical method to the contrary notwith- 
standing. If, instead of four digits, the letters of the 
alphabet are studied in terms of their endless permuta- 
tions, it would seem a hopeless task to weight the posi- 
tions of letters in spelling. The alphabetical mind 
(i. e., the mind that has passed beyond the copy stage 
and is able to throw down the type and create new 
words, ideas, etc.) takes care of all that in its own way 
and transcends any quantitative representation of the 
process. 

The fact that equal units of differences are very 
difficult, if not impossible, to establish in a learning 
process is illustrated in the 5th and 6th lines of the 
visual pattern (p. 97). A simple angle is formed by 
these two lines; yet note the difficulty the respondent 
had in getting a correct placement in the whole pat- 
tern. In themselves, the lines and angles would have 
been perfectly easy; but when simple elements of learn- 
ing enter into new and complex situations, they do not 
fall into such simple categories as they do when standing 
out alone. The question arises, Is one element in a 
learning process as difficult as another ? Is it not after 
all a question similar to that of the chameleon-hued 
character of words which take on new meaning with every 
use? Learning, actual creative thinking, is carried on 
at the point of crisis, at the point of reconstruction of 



THE LEARNING PROCESS 111 

experience in endless recombinations and permutations 
of simple elements. 

In a social-practical sense the word arithmetic 
spelled with a tec instead of a tic is incorrect. But, in 
a learning process, the teacher accepts the word as 
three-fourths correct (in terms of syllables) and pro- 
ceeds at once to have the child attack the word at the 
particular point of difficulty. The learner's task is to 
give explicit attention to the step or stage in which 
difficulty is encountered. If he spells his goat pho- 
netically and arrives with a gote, two letters are placed 
correctly by the requirements of convention, but psy- 
chologically the learning act was completed. It is 
not the learner's fault that society does not agree with 
him; convention got the learner's goat in this instance. 
There are times when the copy mind must be employed 
in learning. It happens in the spelling of some words. 
It would be a high type of teaching and learning that 
would dominate in such matters, in order that the 
mirror-minded pupil should not be developed in all 
sorts of learning. Bright pupils may often be those 
who merely reflect the printed page and the conclu- 
sions of others. 

The respondent in the number series soon began 
to invent devices which might aid him in holding the 
forms in mind. One device was to use the four fingers 
of the left hand, assigning to each finger a digit: the 
index-finger was assigned i, the little finger 4, and so 
on. The digit that appeared first on the card (in thou- 
sands place) was held in mind by pressing to the table 
the finger which bore the digit in that place. That 
seemed to work fairly well for a time. The first digit 
in the combination was being reported more accurately 



112 DIRECTING STUDY 

than the last. When the attempt was made to extend 
this device by holding in mind two digits represented 
by two fingers pressed on the table, the whole ma- 
chinery broke down. It simply became too complex. 
The device was carried too far. This experience sug- 
gests the possibility of devising schemes of learning 
which really obstruct the free play of one's powers of 
mind. 

One device which seemed to work throughout the 
experiment consisted in a rhythmical grouping of the 
numbers by twos. There was a visible swing of the 
body in response to this device. For example, 4312 
was broken into something like two measures 43 and 
12 with an accent on the first part of the measure, as 
it were. This rhythmic swing was carried out to the 
last of the experiment. It seemed to become a habit 
of the respondent to initiate it just before the daily 
practice was begun. Some set of the mind or mood or 
disposition may contribute to successful performance 
and become such a noticeable accompaniment of the 
act as to be capable of direct initiation. It may mean 
nothing more than putting oneself in some habitual 
attitude when learning or studying is the thing in hand. 

One other type of introspective analysis is illuminat- 
ing. Some of the best records of this respondent were 
made on the days when he went into the practice with 
a feeling of ineptitude for learning. On one occasion 
he reported that he started in with a severe headache, 
yet in spite of it he made a high score. The same thing 
happened when fatigue was reported at the beginning 
of a practice. Low scores were sometimes made when 
he went into it with a feeling of success and a zest for 
living. All this suggests that we probably know very 



THE LEARNING PROCESS 113 

little about the situations, physical and biological and 
social, which actually condition learning. 

This example of learning has been elaborated for 
the express purposes of illustrating rather fully a con- 
trolled experiment and of indicating the task involved 
in a serious attempt at teacher study. One who goes 
through a learning process with some of these points 
in mind ought to be able to begin the study of pupils 
at work with a high degree of intelligence and a whole- 
some sympathy. The errors of reasoning by analogy 
will need to be guarded. A new and fresh analysis of 
one's own behavior should not be neglected. Memories 
grow dim in time and are readily distorted by repeti- 
tion. Backgrounds are easily lost.* 

A careful study of habits of work in the mastery of 
any skill or intellectual feat will serve to emphasize 
the problem of learning. It is difficult to devise meth- 
ods of representing progress and results in these under- 
takings. A controlled experiment in which some aspect 
of the learning process can be delineated in graphical 
or mathematical terms will perhaps prove most sug- 
gestive.f 

Undirected Preparation of Lessons. — In the lesson- 
hearing school with its regimental uniformity the 
common practice is to assign a set lesson for undirected 
preparation, usually for home preparation in the upper 
grades and high school. The class period is used, in 
large measure, for the purpose of testing the pupils' 
mastery of the lesson. Recitation and explanation 

* Judd, C. H., Genetic Psychology of Teachers, chaps. I, VI, VIII. 

t Swift, Edgar J., Learning and Doing, chaps. IV, V, VI on "Progress 
in Learning," "Economy in Learning," "Habit in Achievement." In- 
teresting problems of learning are discussed in these chapters. 



114 DIRECTING STUDY 

are employed to assist the pupil toward such mastery 
as seems compatible with the welfare of the class group 
as a whole. Much time is given to the reports of pupils 
upon their preparation. 

Let us examine the conditions under which an enor- 
mous amount of this undirected preparation of lessons 
is carried on. If the task is one of memorization, the 
victim has no way of escape. Nobody can do that for 
him. It would be difficult to measure the amount of 
independent study indulged in by the average pupil. 
His parents assist; his friends do not escape; fellow 
classmates come to his rescue in many a dilemma. 
The extent of first aid ranges all the way from a 
mother's indulgence in writing the theme for her son 
to giving a mere suggestion in the solution of a difficult 
exercise in geometry. The memorizing school had one 
(doubtful) advantage: the student could not resort 
to vicarious learning. When the school is engaged in 
testing the boy's preparation of the lesson, it would 
be well to be mindful of the fact that other persons 
besides the boy are being tested. Many a fond parent 
fails in the lesson-hearing school; some succeed ad- 
mirably. 

Injudicious helping of pupils should be obviated. 
The mirror mind fails to detect the essentially new 
organizing principle or idea of the course of instruc- 
tion. The habit of assimilating dabs of information 
for the particular ends of recitation and examination 
is disastrous to real scholarship, understanding, and 
independent thinking. The veneer washes off upon 
the first exposure to the elements. Undirected as- 
sistance or inexpert guidance (and this may easily 
happen in so-called supervised study) develops the 



THE LEARNING PROCESS 115 

mirror-minded pupil. An astonishing capacity for the 
sheer absorption of subject-matter may be developed. 
Many a pupil has memorized by brute Chinese force 
enough geometry to pass the course. There are those 
who pursue the subject with no confident hope of ever 
overtaking it. If the relatively few significant ideas 
of elementary and secondary mathematics, for ex- 
ample, were actually mastered, much of the confusion 
of youngsters would vanish. The system of undirected 
preparation and recitation, under the instructional 
ideal and a haphazard application of the social prin- 
ciple, shifts the emphasis from mastery of fundamental 
principles to the temporary mastery of "lessons." 
Information, the facts and materials of instruction are 
fitted into patterns for immediate consumption. When 
the patterns are lost or misplaced the pupil is left 
stranded. Memorizing what is said or taught about 
a new principle may be done without understanding 
or thinking. Here lies the danger of excessive telling. 
What is needed is skilful guidance in the learning proc- 
ess. Somebody ought to be the expert: he should 
know when to give and when to refuse assistance. In- 
discriminate telling blurs the whole situation. To 
supply a brute fact which will enable a pupil to go fur- 
ther in his thinking is precisely the opposite of what 
we mean by indiscriminate telling. So long as ability 
to reproduce information is the essential test of prep- 
aration, habits of study will remain unorganized and 
haphazard. Often the effects of good teaching are 
nullified by misdirected assistance. Piece-work done 
with a blind devotion to set lessons rarely leads to a clari- 
fication of principles in any subject. The disposition 
too often is to get the lesson, recite upon it, review it 



116 DIRECTING STUDY 

for examination, and then blissfully dismiss it from 
mind. Lessons may be learned without establishing 
relations or without gripping principles at all. When 
the brute facts disappear the fundamental principles 
slip away also. 

The following description of the mirror mind is a 
vivid example of the memorizing school. Four Chinese 
students in a certain course in a university were sus- 
pected of having found some means of communicating 
with each other in an examination. Their papers bore 
such a high degree of resemblance that the instructor 
was quite sure that dishonesty was practised in some 
mysterious way. He could not decide which paper 
was the original document or which student was the 
offender. The instructor, accordingly, set these four 
students another examination. The results were still 
in doubt. There was again a high degree of likeness 
in the papers. There was no chance for the practice 
of dishonesty inasmuch as the students were carefully 
policed. Finally an explanation was found. These 
students reproduced the text-book and the lectures so 
nearly verbatim that' it was difficult to discover any 
variation in their wording even. The Chinese system 
of education levies a heavy tax on mere memory. 
These students were trained to get the exact language 
and with a marvellous capacity for retention they 
were able to reproduce lecture and text in answer to 
examination questions. The secret was out. Here 
is an example of the mirror mind at work in its highest 
expression. 

The pupil may be a prodigious worker in the lesson- 
hearing school and yet fail to develop individual initia- 
tive and a sense of adequacy by reason of the fact that 



THE LEARNING PROCESS 117 

energy has been consumed in rote learning. The ca- 
pacity of the human mind to resist the introduction 
of knowledge is not nearly so remarkable as the capacity 
of the human mind to absorb an "education" for tem- 
porary purposes. Too many students have been 
crammed, not taught. 

Who does not recall the college student who could 
"sit in" five minutes before the class hour with a hard- 
working gradgrind classmate, get the main points in 
the assignment in that brief time, and actually make 
a respectable recitation with that slender preparation ? 
Who has not met the student who refuses to allow his 
studies to interfere with his college life until two weeks 
before the final examination when he buckles down to 
it and makes the grade, the gentleman's mark at least ? 
Who has not met the pupil who cleverly borrows the 
ideas (often the written work) of a classmate and pre- 
sents his results with much gusto and self-assurance? 
Who has not observed the sharing of interests in a 
group of busy youngsters just before an examination 
or test of some character? 

In all this there are those who may contend that it 
makes no difference how the student gets his lesson; 
the main thing is the acid test of knowing it when called 
upon to recite it or to write it in the examination. To 
be sure, everything depends upon the character of 
the testing and the theory of education upheld. If 
the mirror type of mind is the aim of education, re- 
production of ready-made information, facts, con- 
clusions will be dominant. If independent thinking is 
desired, procedures of different sort must be worked 
out. Conventional standardization of thinking has 
always hindered progress. While it is exceedingly dif- 



118 DIRECTING STUDY 

ficult to secure independent thinking, the necessity of 
it will not be challenged. 

It is both interesting and shocking to examine the 
methods employed by almost any group of pupils in 
their preparation of a lesson. In a class of twenty-five 
pupils in algebra ten problems were assigned for the 
next lesson. Some twenty pupils reported with the 
entire number solved. Only two pupils had done all 
their work without assistance of any kind. It is hardly 
intellectual dishonesty to receive help from others in 
such a situation. Perhaps any reference to the moral 
issue is out of place. Father had assisted son; mother 
had the experience of renewing her erudition of x; 
classmate was called up by telephone to give a specific 
solution to the fifth problem; Mary and Jeremiah, 
the star pupils in the class, were exceedingly popular 
just before class was called; the faithful devoured 
their neighbors' goods. The rapidity with which the 
solution of a difficult problem travels from mind to 
mind among youngsters in home preparation is phe- 
nomenal when prizes (inverted punishments) and 
marks are being awarded. Not infrequently the same 
thing happens in a misdirected socialized recitation. 
The results of the work of a capable pupil can spread 
like wild-fire right under the eyes of the teacher. 

There is a splendid social comradery exhibited here 
and a very delightful illustration, too, of mutuality. 
May this not be after all the real social education we 
hear so much about in these latter days? Of course 
the teacher could insist upon absolute independence 
of work. But the real problem lies deeper. Does a 
suggestion to a pupil in difficulty destroy that inde- 
pendence insisted upon? Where is the line to be 



THE LEARNING PROCESS 119 

drawn ? Is not the social principle after all the clutch 
which throws the individual into action ? If the class- 
room is organized under the instructional ideal with 
an insistence upon regimental uniformity, it would 
appear that this class in algebra is to be commended 
in its resourcefulness in the use of the social principle. 

May it not be, also, that one of the primary func- 
tions of the public school is to keep the home-fires 
burning educationally, so to speak? The good widow, 
mother of seven and wage-earner, should be given a 
hearing "at this point. She complained to the super- 
intendent, saying that after the hard day's work and 
after the evening work at home she was finding her 
educational job rather trying. She said it was dif- 
ficult to teach her seven children all the lessons as- 
signed them in school by their teachers, now that some 
of them had reached the high school. Her proposition 
to the superintendent was that if it was agreeable to 
him she would be glad to hear her kiddies recite the 
lessons if the teachers would teach them in the school- 
rooms. This shift of emphasis might work. 

It would be a distinct loss if the student failed to 
keep the professor educated. On the whole, the re- 
sponsibility placed upon the home by our school prac- 
tices is good for the home. It serves to keep alive an 
interest in education. Parents find it less of a burden 
to teach their children or to assist them or to com- 
mand them to study their lessons at home than to de- 
vise ways of taking care of any marginal free time. 
It may be a bit unfair and too severe criticism to in- 
sist that the modern home has abrogated its author- 
ity. At all events, the home is quite willing that the 
school should be exacting enough of the pupils in re- 



120 DIRECTING STUDY 

spect of home study to keep them at some kind of 
work during those hours of the day when the respon- 
sibility of parents for direct methods of educating their 
children would prove a real task. One criticism against 
so-called supervised study, mechanically conducted, 
is the attempt to delete home study. The good widow 
has suggested a far wiser solution. At all events, our 
conception of directing activity as the major work of 
the teacher will in no sense do away with wholesome 
forms of home work for pupils. Parents will still have 
an opportunity to participate vitally in the educative 
process within the procedure proposed under directing 
study. 

Directing Pupils in Work. — In sharp contrast to the 
general practice of assigning a set uniform lesson for 
out-of-class preparation and subsequent recitation upon 
it, let us study a few situations in which pupils carry 
on their work under the immediate direction of the 
teacher. 

A. (a) A class of thirty-seven pupils in geometry (ioth 
grade) began the attack upon some twenty-five original exer- 
cises running up into a half-dozen or more rather difficult sup- 
plementary exercises. In all, three days were given to this chal- 
lenge. During the second and third days the procedure indicated 
below was used. The class period was seventy minutes net. 
Many pupils were on the job twenty minutes before the class 
period formally began. 

The pupils were directed to work as rapidly as possible and 
to come to the teacher for consultation when they felt sure they 
could go no further in their particular exercises. Their work 
out of class was a continuation of work begun in class. The 
pupil reported with his work (the case method), indicated his 
method of work, and pointed out his difficulty if unable to go 
further. 

The teacher used a pad to jot down just what he said to each 



THE LEARNING PROCESS 121 

pupil or group of pupils. Each one was on his mark; only such 
groupings were formed as were suggested by the teacher during 
the procedure for these three days. Occasionally two or three 
pupils were directed to go to the board and discuss quietly their 
problem. 

The amount of work, that is, the number of exercises mas- 
tered ranged from one to ten or more each day. The circle, in 
other words, was described; each pupil was free within it; no 
upper limit was set for any one. Some pupils spent the whole 
class period on some very difficult exercise (for them) at that 
time. 

These notes are transcribed from the teacher's pad. They 
indicate just what he said to pupils during the last two days of 
the challenge. The number of the exercise was noted and the 
suggestion or hint or question is recorded. In parentheses, now 
and again, the nature of the pupil's difficulty is indicated. The 
pupil described his dilemma. The teacher observed the injunc- 
tion of not talking too much. The pupil upon the suggestion 
went to his seat or to the board and in all these cases below 
succeeded in demonstrating his exercises. 

Ruth. "Try to use supplementary angles." 
Margaret. (A defective figure.) "Draw your figure 

with your instruments." 
Oscar. "Talk to your figure." * 
Tom. "How did you draw line AB?" 
Franklin. "Can you see an hypotenuse in your 

figure?" 
M. and C. "Work on the size of angles (in de- 
grees)." 
H. "Keep one finger on page 62." (A page of 

summary directions.) 
/., A., and Fr. (Working in a group. Heated de- 
bate. Fr. presented one solution of an exercise, 
/. and A. another. /. and A. were pointing out 

* One pupil developed the habit of drawing a figure and then talk- 
ing to it as if it were a kind of personified thing. 



122 DIRECTING STUDY 

the error in Fr.'s reasoning.) "Soft pedal it over 

there." * 
Halvor. " Can you make any use of exterior angle ? " 
Wm. "Supplements?" 
A. "Review exercise 120 and try to use it." 

Whole Class. (Five minutes.) "Here is an alge- 
braic way of working certain situations you will all need 
to employ now and again." Explanation and drill. 

If (1) a equals c and (2) b equals d and if (3) a plus c 
equals b plus d. Then a plus a equals b plus b (by sub- 
stituting for c its equal a, etc.). 

Then 2a equals 26. 

Then a equals b. 

Similarly c may be proved equal to d. 

"Now apply the principles of this solution to your 
geometry." 

L. (Confused as to hypothesis.) "Read your exer- 
cise and trace it in your figure with your finger as 
you read it." 

S. "Apply axiom I to your congruent triangles." 

* "Responding to influences from without, life is an unfolding process 
from within. This is the conception that is now shaping our methods 
of instruction. The old recognized as training and discipline the so- 
called voluntary attention which seemed to be mainly the ability to 
stare, ox-like, a disagreeable, uninteresting, or unintelligible thing out 
of countenance. The new believes in training and discipline that come 
from the pupil's effort to follow up from premise to conclusion some- 
thing which mightily interests him because of its worthy purpose. The 
new values attainment only as it represents a quality of mind that has 
acted through its own initiative. The old found satisfaction in a state 
of mind that was quietly receptive; the new sees hope in turbulence of 
inquiry; and all of these are irreconcilable differences in kind." — (Jack- 
man.) 



THE LEARNING PROCESS 123 

Lo. "Surely, any side of triangle may be your 
base." 

T. "Makes with the base an angle? Read it and 
trace it in your figure. Dwell on it." 

and H. "Use another fact stated in your hy- 
pothesis. Examine all the data given. Plan a 
general way of attacking it." * 

U. "Tut, tut! You used your conclusion in your 
demonstration." (Oh, she says. A very com- 
mon expletive in this procedure.) 

A. "Try to think exercise 128 and 131 together." 
(One is converse of the other.) 

M. (Difficulty in seeing related parts in overlap- 
ping figures.) "Separate the triangles. Draw 
them out aside and look at them." 

M. "Try drawing bisector of angle. Go back to 

, exercise 119." 

E. and 0. "What did we work out together yester- 
day?" (The algebraic way of getting quantities 
equal.) "Apply it here." 

H. "Keep one eye on page 59. Something on that 
page for you. Select two triangles in your figure. 
You may draw construction lines, you know." 

R. " Where is MN ? I don't see it. Be sure to get 
all of the facts in your hypothesis. Read it care- 
fully." (Oh, I see.) 

K. "What kind of a triangle have you?" 

C and F. "Select at once triangles which include 

* "It (reasoning) is made easier (1) by systematizing the search; (2) 
by limiting the number of classes amongst which the pupil must search 
for the right one; (3) by informing him of classes which include the right 
one and which he would neglect if undirected; and (4) by calling his 
attention to the consequences of membership in this or that class." — 
(Thorndike, Principles of Teaching, p. 163.) 



124 DIRECTING STUDY 

any parts of your conclusion." (I spent two hours 

on this one. I have it.) "Fine." 
/. "How many sides has a triangle?" 
G. "Rub it out, line HF, and try to use exterior 

angle." 

E. "Why are those lines parallel? Go back to 
page 62." (Summary.) 

R. "All right so far. Now show what the nature 

of angles a and c is." 
Fr. "Read your angle there again and point to it 

as you read it." (Oh!) 
/., M ., and /. "Try to apply this principle: a equals 

c ; b equals d. Then a plus b equals c plus d. Do 

you see it now?" (Oh, yes.) 
G. "Turn to page 59. There is something there 

you can use." 

F. "Go to board and draw with instruments the 
kind of triangle you want here. Do it quite ac- 
curately." 

R. "Suppose you abandon trying to prove figures 
congruent. What are your alternatives now? 
Correct. Now which one can you use?" 

These are typical hints, helps, questions, direc- 
tions, etc. 

During the third day in this challenge of twenty-five orig- 
inal exercises, Tom and Arnold completed the entire list early 
in the class period. They then assisted the teacher, taking down 
on a pad just what they said to a pupil at the point of his dif- 
ficulty. They did it very well indeed and said they enjoyed 
it thoroughly. 

Here are a few of their notes on what they actually 
said: 



THE LEARNING PROCESS 125 

H. "Keep your finger on page 62. Try to construct 
a line parallel to CF and see what happens." 

L. "Look up different ways of finding when a tri- 
angle is isosceles." 

N. "What are the ways of finding quantities 
equal?" 

G. "What do you know about the bisector of the 
vertex angle of some kinds of triangles?" 

K. "What do you know about a perpendicular 
drawn to a line?" 

P. "How do you construct a perpendicular to a 
line ? " "What is the hypothesis in any theorem ? " 
"Do you know what an isosceles triangle is?" 

E. "How do you prove two segments equal?" 
"Why is BMN a right angle?" "Why is CM 
parallel to AB?" "What do you know about 
the bisector of an exterior angle of an equilateral 
triangle?" 

Bear in mind these pupils, Tom and Arnold, were do- 
ing this superb work in directing activity in a real 
challenge. They can teach all of us a thing or 
two. Note the simplicity of their suggestions. 
Potential Toms and Arnolds may be realized in 
every class. These boys did their assisting with a 
quiet dignity. Such work may be made a privi- 
lege.* 

* 1. In considering such qualities as self -direction, initiative, and 
originality, attention is directed to a positive and dynamic meaning of 
these traits, such as Thorndike so effectively describes in Teachers' Col- 
lege Record 17, p. 405 ff., 1916. "The view is to think of independence, 
not as unreadiness to follow or obey or believe in other men, but as a 
readiness and ability to contribute to good causes something more than 
is suggested by others; to think of initiative, not as an unreadiness to 
wait or co-operate or be modest, but as a readiness and ability to move 
ahead, 'speed up,' lead and take promising risks, and as an attitude of 



126 DIRECTING STUDY 

(b) The same class in geometry as in (a) above. 

The following exercise was begun in class by all the 
pupils with the expectation that each one would have 
a chance to do his own thinking. Habits of work were 
examined in so far as it was possible to do so. The 
teacher sought to discover the particular difficulty 
each pupil encountered and to check the work as 
rapidly as it was done. The following notes upon each 
pupil were gathered in about twenty minutes. An 
attempt is made here to record some points about the 
work of each pupil. 

Exercise. (All on your marks now !) 

"If two opposite angles of a quadrilateral are equal, and if the 
diagonal joining the other two angles bisects one of them, then it 
bisects the other." 

The pupils were directed to begin this new exercise at once, 
work as rapidly as possible, and come to the teacher at the point 
of difficulty. The teacher was active in discovering what the 
particular difficulty was, and his procedure was to make only a 
suggestion, ask a question, give a hint. 

i. William's first difficulty was in knowing what is meant 

expecting to create opportunities, and do ten dollars' worth of work 
for a dollar. Originality must not mean weakness in doing routine work 
in old ways, or any essential dislike of traditional knowledge or customs 
as such or any paucity of fixed habits — but strength in doing work that 
is new or doing it in new ways, an attitude of hoping to change knowl- 
edge or practice for the better, an organization of habits that causes 
their progressive modification. . . . The dynamic opposite of original- 
ity is not efficiency, but stupidity. The dynamic opposite of efficient 
routine is not genius, but disorder. . . . Finally, will it not clear the 
whole argument somewhat if, in our own thinking about education, we 
replace the word 'self-reliance' by reliance on facts; 'self-direction' by 
rational direction; 'initiative' by readiness and ability to begin to think 
and experiment; 'independence' by readiness to carry thought or experi- 
ment on to its just conclusions despite traditions and customs and lack of 
company." 



THE LEARNING PROCESS 127 

by opposite angles. He stumbled on the distinction between 
successive and opposite angles. 

2. Margaret was on the whole the best thinker in the class. 
She had written four perfect "examinations" in the first eight 
weeks of her geometry, and her daily work was invariably ex- 
cellent. Her difficulty in this exercise was in the antecedent of 
them. She carried it back to the first dependent clause. When 
the teacher asked her to relate her pronoun to some other pos- 
sible antecedent, she found the solution perfectly easy. 

3. Frances, a very good pupil, read the exercise and began 
the demonstration by drawing an equilateral triangle. "Quadri- 
lateral" was translated "equilateral." When she discovered 
her initial error she sailed on without difficulty. She probably 
discovered her error in trying to draw diagonals of an equilateral 
triangle. Was her difficulty a failure to read? Hardly. She 
caught lateral in quadrilateral by the tail of her eye and did 
what every one who really reads does: she filled in meaning 
out of her head. Did she think? The fact is she perhaps did 
think too much. 

4 and 5. Kenneth read the exercise four times and remained 
wholly innocent of the meaning of it all. When prodded to 
draw a figure which seemed to be suggested by these words of 
telegraphic brevity he got under way. Jim had to have four or 
five additional social starters before getting to the point of un- 
derstanding what it was all about. By that time more than 
half the class had made a complete demonstration of the exer- 
cise. 

6. Henry met his Waterloo on the word diagonal. 

7. Mary wrestled with the two dependent clauses, and as 
soon as it dawned upon her that each one gave her the basis for 
a statement in her hypothesis in terms of her figure, the rest 
of it was very quickly done. 

8. Mamie read it and represented it in a figure as she read it 
and solved it without hesitation. 

9. 10, 11, 12, and 13 indicated experience similar to that of 
Mamie. 

14. Oscar, a very cautious thinker, grew a bit timid in at- 
tacking the triangles formed by the diagonal. He was perfectly 
clear in his intellectual method at the point of hesitation. He 
had in mind two alternatives. He wanted assurance in his next 



128 DIRECTING STUDY 

step. When told that either alternative would bring him safely 
to a correct conclusion, he became confident of his ability to go 
forward. 

15. Loraine made a false application of one of the ways of 
proving triangles congruent. A hint, and she corrected her 
error. 

16. Lorna slipped on the meaning of an included angle. 

17. Tom had missed a corollary on account of absence. He 
was directed to turn to it and master it then and there. He did 
so and made use of it within the first ten minutes of work on the 
exercise. 

18. Arnold did the work quite accurately, but he made of it 
a very long proof. A suggestion at one point in his proof, and he 
at once made a short-cut proof. 

19. Pearl was dazed before the array of conditions, apparently 
unable to grip the thing at any angle. She merely got started 
in the time allotted for this experiment. 

20. Mildred, a very dependable thinker, was not quite sure 
of homologous angles in her figure. By "a stroke of the eye," 
as it were, her difficulty cleared away. 

21. Helen, a rather silent partner in the procedure, responded 
when asked how she was getting on, that she felt sure of her 
method of attack. 

22. Melvin seems perfectly happy in bearing lightly the sor- 
rowful burden of human knowledge. He is content to be a mir- 
ror mind, carelessly reflecting what he picks up in haphazard 
work. As soon as the solution of the exercise was presented, he 
absorbed it and was prepared to give it back just as he received 
it. He manifested practically no initiative, even though he read 
it several times like a good little boy obedient to authority. 

And so on for thirty-seven pupils in this particular 
class. 

The striking fact about this type of analysis of the 
habits of work of any group of pupils is lack of uni- 
formity of achievement. No two pupils needed the same 
treatment. It would have been absurd to call the at- 
tention of the entire class to the difficulty which 



THE LEARNING PROCESS 129 

Frances encountered in the word quadrilateral. Why 
fuss the other members of the class with the particular 
difficulty of a single pupil ? 

Yet that is precisely what is done in the recitation 
system. The attention of the entire class is arrested 
by some unique response of the pupil called on to recite 
or to relate his particular progress and difficulty. 
There is a time for class discussion. Again, any ex- 
tended explanation in the situations just cited could 
hardly be justified. 

Difficulties do not come to any class group by the clock. 
Difficulties are for the most part individual. The same 
individual does not respond with a high degree of uni- 
formity from day to day. The teacher who has de- 
veloped the experimental attitude of mind may find 
some such study of habits of work as this one a profit- 
able departure on many occasions in directing activity 
in teaching. Such an exercise conducted in a controlled 
environment enables the pupil to do independent think- 
ing, or rather, let us say, rationally dependent think- 
ing. May it not be a real beginning in creative or 
scientific thinking? 

A year after taking their geometry some pupils were 
requested to make a frank statement about the gen- 
eral procedure illustrated in this class. Two pupils 
responded as follows, fifteen and sixteen year old 
pupils. These statements are decidedly original and 
first-hand. They express very clearly the procedure. 
No apology is offered for including them. Pupils are 
not lectured to about any particular intellectual 
method. 

"I like your system of 'challenges' very much. It gives the 
student responsibility and a greater opportunity for initiative. 



130 DIRECTING STUDY 

Class work rather than recitation makes individual help possible; 
for instance, student A may understand certain principles very 
well, while student B does not. Then the instructor has time 
to help B out of his difficulty without holding A back. Perhaps 
next time, vice versa. By a class recitation held, say once in 
two weeks, the work of the completed challenge can be summed 
up, thus testing each student. This system also develops com- 
petition, and 'emulation among students incites to industry.' " 
-(L. O.) 

"Each person has a different method of learning a subject. 
In geometry one person may learn by repeated application, 
another by finding the reason behind each theorem. The teacher 
has to follow the system and thoughts of each individual in the 
class. The challenges offer a splendid opportunity. In every 
geometry class there will be a certain number of pupils who 
learn by application. Part of these will be able to work ahead 
by themselves when a certain goal is given them. The other 
part will not grasp the subject so easily, and the teacher can 
give them help individually or as a group without keeping back 
the first group. The same will apply to the group which has 
to find the reason before they can apply the theorem. In this 
way every person is progressing as rapidly as possible without 
retarding another person. Then, when a certain part of the 
subject has been studied, to have a general discussion clears up 
every point, and every one is ready for a new phase of the work." 
-(R. N.) 

B. Class in biology, twenty-six pupils, nth and 12th grades. 

In preparation for this experiment the class (juniors and 
seniors) had worked out a set of experiments on osmosis and 
digestion (covering four days' work) so that they fully under- 
stood the following definitions: "Osmosis is the interchange of 
liquids of different density that are separated by a plant or an 
animal membrane (cell-walls). In the process of osmosis the 
greater flow is always from the less dense to the more dense." 

"Digestion is a chemical change whereby soluble food sub- 
stances are made ready to pass through cell-walls or made ready 
to be used in cells." 

The first question was given, answered by each on paper. 



THE LEARNING PROCESS 131 

No class discussion followed. Students were then asked to write 
out thought processes. 

The second question (more difficult than the first) was given 
with the understanding that they were to analyze their proc- 
esses. 

As a teacher, it is helping me greatly to realize how my in- 
dividual students think. It will help me in directing their 
thought processes in the future. — (Teacher, L. W.) 

a and c in each case below are the answers to the questions, 
b and d the pupils' analysis of their intellectual method. The 
questions are not repeated. Only six typical reports are in- 
cluded; one record of a college senior participating in the class 
is included. Answers are not edited. 
I. (a) Why will dried raisins and prunes become filled when 
you put them into water? 

They will become filled because water will pass 
through a membrane, and the water seeps into the 
cells through the cell-wall. 

(b) The first thought I thought was whether the raisins and 

prunes were cooked or not. They were not. If they 
weren't cooked the cell-walls must still be there. Water 
will pass through a membrane, and cell- walls are mem- 
branes; therefore water must pass into the cells, or, in 
other words, water passes into the raisins and prunes 
and fills them up. 

(c) In order to cook meat to obtain rich soup or broth how would 

you prepare it ? 

I would pound the meat first and then cook it so 
that the broth could escape from the meat. 

(d) I first thought what makes broth. It must be the sub- 

stance contained in the cells. These would burst any- 
way in heating, but if I broke the cells first more of 
the substance could escape in the time allowed for the 
meat to cook. Then I thought: "Why wouldn't the 
water seep into the cells, as the water is less dense than 
the substance contained in cells and the flow is always 
from the less dense to the more dense?" This could 
not happen, because for the process of osmosis a cell- 
wall or membrane is necessary, and I had broken the 



132 DIRECTING STUDY 

cell-walls by pounding. Therefore, my answer is 
proved. — (F. S.) 

II. (a) As the sap in the cells is denser than water, the water 

enters in by the process of osmosis. The skin acts as 
a membrane through which it passes. 

(b) i. By the experiments that preceded. 

2. By the results of one certain experiment which ex- 

plained it. 

3. By a certain definition whose contents applied di- 

rectly to the thought. 

(c) I think I would let the meat stand in water for a little 

while so as to let as much water enter as possible (by 
osmosis) before boiling. As we know that in osmosis 
the interchange is from both sides, we would get a 
little of the cell-sap out before boiling. I think I would 
then boil in the same water so as not to lose any of the 
sap. Boiling will break up the cell-walls by expansion 
of steam, as the water in the cells would produce it. 
When the cell- walls are broken the rest of the sap would 
come out. You ought to have good soup, as you would 
have practically all of the cell-sap. 

(d) In answering this question it brought to my mind several 

things which have been proven in class. The first 
would be the process of osmosis, by which the water 
would bring out the cell-sap. 

Second was the effect of boiling on the cell-walls. 

Third was what was going to happen to the sap if 
they were broken. 

Fourth, as you would have almost all of the cell- 
sap, that you ought to have good soup, seeing that all 
soup was is cell-sap of the meat which contained the 
flavor.— (A. S.) 

III. (a) They will become filled up, because of the process 

of osmosis which takes place. The less dense water 
goes through the membranes into the denser syrup in 
the fruit. 
(b) We are studying osmosis; therefore, I immediately thought 
that the question had to do with osmosis. My mind 
wandered back to the kitchen at home, and I saw a 
pan of raisins soaking in water. My mind exaggerated 



THE LEARNING PROCESS 133 

the action going on in the pan, and I saw the water 
soaking into the cells in the raisins. Therefore, I con- 
cluded that for that reason the question was proved 
as I answered it. 

(c) In order to cook meat for the purpose of obtaining good, 

rich broth, how would you prepare it? 

I would allow the meat to remain in cold water for 
an hour or two in order that osmosis might take place. 
Then in cooking I would not allow the soup to boil, as 
it would break up the cells of the meat, and it would 
become tough. 

(d) Remembering the test with potato, I figured that as for 

potato, so must osmosis take place in meat. Then 
when the home work on boiling potato was reported 
on, they proved that boiling caused the cells to be 
broken up, and if this happened the osmosis which 
took place would have been of no value. — (P. B.) 
IV. (a) Here we have the cell-walls — which are the mem- 
brane and liquids of two different densities. The water 
inside the raisins (cell-sap) and the water outside. The 
water being less dense than cell-sap — the larger flow 
will be into the cells — thus filling each one out. Some 
of the cell-sap will come out, because in osmosis there 
is always an interchange, but this will be negligible 
compared with the inward flow. 

(b) First of all I collected facts learned in other experiments 

which I thought would help work out this one. I then 
modified these facts so that they applied directly to 
the question at hand. 

(c) To get broth we must so cook meat that all the juices 

will come out. From our osmosis experiments we 
know that when liquids of two different densities are 
separated by a cell-wall or membrane the flow of the 
less dense is always the greater; in order to attain 
our end we must prepare a solution in which the meat 
will be cooked; that is, denser than the liquid in the 
meat. Thus, the juices in the meat will flow out, while 
there will be little of the flowing in of the denser solu- 
tion. 



134 DIRECTING STUDY 

(d) (i) First of all I got an hypothesis; that is, something 
from which I could start and to which I could add facts. 

(2) Then I went back to the osmosis experiments — 
because of the similarity I saw between these two prob- 
lems — I dwelt especially on the experiment in which 
a potato was placed in salt water. 

(3) I then worked out the similar points in these 
two experiments, and so modified my terms and ideas 
that they fitted directly the experiment under dis- 
cussion. — (H. F., a college senior participating in the 
class.) 

V. (a) The raisins and prunes contain or are made up of 
tiny cells. The moisture in these cells is much more 
dense than water. Water will pass into the cells of 
raisins or prunes on account of it being less dense than 
liquid left in raisins, because osmosis takes place from 
the less dense liquid to the more dense liquid. If salt 
water (rather strong) were used instead of pure water, 
water would probably not be absorbed by prunes or 
raisins. 

(b) Things I thought of when I wrote the above explanation 

(in order). 

1. Cells of raisins and grapes, when dry. 

2. How cells may become enlarged by water. 

3. Osmosis through the cell-walls. 

4. Density of water compared with liquid left in dried 

raisins. 

5. How experiment would work if a liquid with greater 

density were used. 

(c) The meat should be cut up in pieces not larger than a fist 

or in chunks of not more than one-half pound each. 
Place it into a kettle and pour on it some cold water. 
Cold water should be used instead of hot water because 
it will pass into the cells of the meat by means of os- 
mosis, while hot water would cook the cell-walls, and 
therefore would not permit the water to enter the cells. 
When water has been placed on the meat which is in 
a kettle, place it on a stove where the fire is not too 
hot, so that boiling will not take place too rapidly. 
Allow to cook gradually for about four or five hours or 



THE LEARNING PROCESS 135 

longer. The water which was taken in by osmosis 
will fill up the cells to their fullest capacity, and when 
boiling occurs the liquid inside the cell-walls will ex- 
pand enough to burst the cell-walls. Then all the 
liquid in the cell-walls, the liquid that was in the meat, 
besides the water which was absorbed, will be released. 
Upon boiling gradually a few hours the water will be 
evaporated, and you will have left a rich broth. If the 
water disappears from the meat before the meat is 
quite soft and well done, add more water, as many 
times as necessary. This can be boiled off again by 
heating properly. The meat which is left will contain 
less nourishment than it would if boiled in a different 
way, but in this way the soup is most nourishing. Add 
enough salt to suit taste about half -hour before done. 
(d) i. Structure of meat-cells: color, shape, texture. 

2. Characteristic of soup: fat globules and taste of soup 

when hot and cold. 

3. Boiling of meat, as I have observed for soup or for 

meat. 

4. Frying of meat: that a hot fire is necessary to make 

a good job of it. 

5. How soup is prepared from soup bone and tough 

meats. 

6. How meat looks if soup has been made from it. 

7. How soup looks after it is finished, and how soup 

should be eaten, hot or cold. 

8. Nourishment contained in various soups. 

9. How meat left from cooking soups would taste. 

10. Why sick people are fed soup instead of meat: be- 
cause it is more easily digested — also more quickly. 
-(R. B.) 
VI. (a) The reason that dried prunes swell when placed in 
water is that osmosis occurs in the cells. The cell-sap, 
which is a much denser liquid than the water, acts 
through the cell- wall (as a membrane), and osmose 
reactions occur. The greater flow, of course, is to the 
denser cell-sap from the water. 
(b) I derived this answer from my past experiments on os- 
mosis. I thought first of the grape-sugar experiment, 



136 DIRECTING STUDY 

then of the one where potato is the main material (os- 
mosis in living cells). I thus derived the answer from 
the fact that osmose reactions occur through cell-walls. 

(c) I think that a richer (if not more in quantity) soup or 

broth could be made if the meat-cells were broken 
down completely. In case it was to be boiled first, I 
should think that osmosis would occur between the 
dense cell-sap of the meat-cells and the less dense water. 
But osmosis takes time and all of the cell-sap would 
not come out, and neither would all the water go in; 
in fact, only a precious little would go into the cells. 
So I conclude that if the cell-walls were broken down 
a richer soup may be expected. 

(d) To derive this I thought of the osmosis experiment that 

we had performed and remembered that they stood 
twenty-four hours and changed only a little. So to 
cook meat so that all the rich cell-sap and protoplasm, 
etc., would enter into the broth the cell- walls must be 
broken down. I also thought of how soft and mushy 
the potato is when boiled. That is a case of cell dem- 
olition. 

VII. (a) Because osmosis takes place. The material in- 
side these fruits is more dense than the water. Os- 
mosis is the interchange of two liquids of different 
density through a plant or animal membrane. The 
membrane in this case is plant, and it is composed of the 
cell-walls and the fruit-wall. The raisins and prunes 
are not entirely dry. There is enough moisture in these 
cells to insure the reaction. If these fruits were per- 
fectly dry no reaction could take place. The "bloom" 
is taken off these dried fruits. 

(b) Analysis of Thinking. 

a) Points about composition of fruits. 

b) Study of cells and functions. 

c) Principles of osmosis. 

d) Actually seeing these fruits "fill out." 

e) Seeing no reason for doubting the principle of os- 

mosis applied in this case. 

f) Conclusions. 



THE LEARNING PROCESS 137 

(c) We know meats contain juices. These juices contain 

minerals, proteins, and carbohydrates in the cells of 
which it is composed. Of course to obtain broth con- 
taining these foods they must be extracted from the 
meat. To do this the meat must be cut up in small 
pieces to obtain more surface and boiled in water con- 
taining salt. The salt solution will be more dense than 
the cell-sap and the osmosis will take place and boiling 
will burst the cell-walls. The results will be that the 
juices will be extracted. The boiling also makes it 
possible for the fats to assume a more digestible form. 
This method enables one to obtain all the benefits of 
the meat in a more readily digestible form. 

(d) Method of Thinking. 

i. First, I recalled my knowledge of the composition 
of meats, and related it to the principles of 
osmosis. Then I connected up some of my 
knowledge in physics of pressure. I then re- 
membered some of my chemistry about the 
insolubility of fats. These I linked together 
with osmosis and my study of foods in biology, 
and reached my conclusion of the preparing of 
foods. — (C. S.) 
C. Individual Help on Recognition of Complete Subject and 
Predicate in a yth-Grade Class. 

Ten sentences were worked out in this class. Each pupil 
marked complete subject and predicate on his own paper, work- 
ing individually, and came to the teacher, or to the class helpers, 
when assistance was needed. The numbers refer to the sentences 
with which the pupils had difficulty. In most cases the pupils 
made no answer, but simply went back to their seats and cor- 
rected their mistakes. Before the end of the hour all had 
marked all the sentences without error, and had their papers 
O. K.'d by the teacher. 

(Thus far we have been recognizing the simple subject and verb. The 
complete subject usually contains words or groups of words which de- 
scribe it more fully. So the verb also has its modifiers. In the sen- 
tence "The cosey room was littered with books and papers," the simple 
verb is was littered. "With books and papers" adds to the picture, tells 



138 DIRECTING STUDY 

us more about it. The verb with its modifiers — as was littered with books 
and papers, in this sentence is called the predicate or complete predicate.) 

Underline with one line the complete subject, with two lines 
the complete predicate, in the following: 
i. After the theatre we drove home. 

2. Down he went on all fours. 

3. Quick as a flash the blow fell. 

4. "Aye, aye," answered the sailor. 

5. A worse trip they had never taken. 

6. Lost in the wilderness the children wandered for hours. 

7. Not every one could make as good a speech as that. 

8. Here comes the teacher ! 

9. The principal had called Lucy's mother to a conference. 
10. We had had a delightful picnic after all. 

The following responses indicate the character of the pro- 
cedure employed in directing these pupils at work: 
Helen. 
3. (Pupil's question.) Would you put the with blow? (He 

continues.) Oh, yes, it tells which blow. 
10. (Pupil's question.) Had had. What is that supposed to be ? 

6. What does "lost in the wilderness" modify? (I had to 

ask this question at least a dozen times.) 

7. Does "not" modify could make or every one? (I think 

myself that this could perhaps be construed in two 

ways.) 
1. What does "after the theatre" modify? 
9. "Lucy's mother" tells whom he called. (This pupil had 

the subject right.) We call that the ? Do you 

know whether it belongs to the subject or the verb? 
9. Is "Lucy's mother" the subject? Does it belong to the 

subject ? 

7. "As good a speech" tells ? You call that ? 

5. "A worse trip" tells ? Cover it up and see what 

you need to know in the sentence; then uncover it and 

see whether that tells you what to do. 
3. Does "quick as a flash" tell about the blow? What does 

it teU? 
9. This is wrong. I think you can tell what is wrong with it. 



THE LEARNING PROCESS 139 

Following is a report of one of four pupils who got their papers 
O. K.'d early in the hour, and who were permitted to help other 
pupils by asking questions, never by telling. These pupils noted 
down the questions they asked, and, in some cases, the answers: 

3. Why would "quick as a flash" modify blow? Then what 
would it modify ? 

2. What did he do? 

3. Why would "quick as a flash" be the subject? What did 

it do? What does "quick as a flash" modify? 

5. What did "a worse trip" do? 

6. What did the children do? What does "lost in the wilder- 

ness" modify? 

7. What is the subject? Why would "as good a speech" be 

the subject ? What did every one do ? 

D. Habits of Work of Individual Pupils. — Two examples of 
the methods of work employed by pupils are included here. 
The accounts are given by the pupils themselves. The request 
made of them was to have them study the problem or exercise 
and then to tell what they actually did in trying to learn the 
thing in hand. (These accounts are not changed materially 
from the form in which they were submitted by the pupils.) 

(a) Exercise. "Ex quibus L. Petrosidius aquilifer, 
cum magna multitudine hostium premeretur, aquilam 
intra vallum proiecit; ipse pro castris fortissime pugnans 
occiditur." 

1. "Ex" is a preposition and it means from. It takes the ablative 
case. "Quibus" is either in the dative or ablative, but since it follows 
"ex," I guess that it is object of the preposition. I think that this means 
either from which or from whom. "Lucius Petrosidius" is a proper 
name, I know. "Aquilifer" probably comes from aquila and/ero, mean- 
ing to carry the eagle. Then I know that each legion has an eagle, so I 
know that the word means an eagle-bearer. It is in the nominative, the 
same as Lucius Petrosidius, so I know that it must tell who Petrosidius 
is. Because they are both in the same case, I know that they are the 
subject. I know that the sentence runs so far like this: "From which 
Lucius Petrosidius, an eagle-bearer." The next word is " cum." I know 
this is a preposition that takes the ablative case and means with, or it 
can be used with the subjunctive to mean when, although, or since. 



140 DIRECTING STUDY 

"Magna multitudine" is in the ablative, so I think the phrase means with 
a great multitude. "Hostium" is the genitive case, so it must mean of 
the enemy. The verb at the end of this sentence is in the subjunctive, so 
I see that I was wrong in thinking that "cum" went with "magna multi- 
tudine," and I see that "magna multitudine" is ablative of means and 
"cum" means either since or although. Then the sentence so far would 
read like this: "From which Lucius Petrosidius, an eagle-bearer, since 
(or although) by a great multitude of the enemy he was hard pressed." 
"Aquilam" is in the accusative, so I know that it must be the object 
either of a verb or of some preposition. "Intra" is a preposition mean- 
ing behind that takes the accusative, and as "vallum" is in the accusa- 
tive, it must be the object of "intra." "Proiecit" is a verb meaning to 
throw, and as it is in the third person singular, it must mean that "Lucius 
Petrosidius threw." It is past tense. "Aquilam" must be its object, 
so the sentence must be translated like this: "The eagle behind the 
wall he threw." "Ipse" is in the nominative case, so it must mean him- 
self, referring to Lucius. "Pro" is a preposition that takes the abla- 
tive and means for. "Castris" is the next word, in the ablative, so it 
must mean for the camp. "Fortissime" is superlative adverbial form of 
brave, so something must be done most bravely. "Pugnans" is a parti- 
ciple, I know by the ns ending. In English it is a verb form ending in 
-ing, so this is translated as fighting. It is the same form as " ipse," so it 
must modify it. "Occiditur" is the present passive, third person sin- 
gular, so it must mean he is killed. The last phrase then must be trans- 
lated like this: "Himself for the camp most bravely fighting, is killed." 
Then I go back and get all the parts and get a sentence like this: "From 
which Lucius Petrosidius, an eagle-bearer, although by a great multi- 
tude he was hard pressed, the eagle behind the wall he threw, himself 
for the camp most bravely fighting is killed." Then revising it, I get: 
"From which Lucius Petrosidius, an eagle-bearer, although hard pressed 
by a great multitude, threw the eagle behind the wall. He was killed 
most bravely fighting for the camp."— (Dick, fifteen years old.) 

(b) Experiment in Chemistry. 

My problem was to make five grams of Al(OH) 3 . I looked up Al(OH) 3 
in the solubility table, and found that it was insoluble. From this 
I knew that it could be prepared by precipitation. The next thing that 
I had to do was to find two common soluble salts; one which con- 
tained the needed Al ions and one that had the OH ions. I chose 
A1 2 (S0 4 ) 3 and NaOH. I also found that A1 2 (S0 4 )3 contained eighteen 
parts H 2 0, and that NaOH contained none. I then wrote the equation 
representing the reaction that would take place. The equation was as 
follows; A1 2 (S0 4 ) 3 • i8H 8 0-r-6NaOH->'3Na 2 S04+2Al(OH) 3 +i8H 2 0. I 



THE LEARNING PROCESS 141 

found the molecular weights on each side balanced each other, and so 
I knew that the equation was correct. The weights on each side of the 
equation were 906. I next wrote and solved the proportions giving the 
amounts of material needed and the amount of products formed. To 
do this I used the following proportion: the molecular weight of the 
known weight is to the molecular weight of the unknown weight as the 
known weight is to x. (A page of equations and proportions follows.) 

As a result of these proportions I found that I would have to combine 
21.34 grams of A1 2 (S04) 3 with 7.69 grams NaOH to form 5 grams 
Al(OH) 3 , 13.65 grams Na 2 SC>4 and 10.38 grams of H 2 0. The weights 
on both sides of the equation balanced, and so I knew that my figures 
were correct. 

After I had completed my calculations I weighed out my compounds 
as accurately as possible, and dissolved each of them in separate beakers 
of distilled H 2 0. I used distilled H 2 because I knew that the tap water 
contained impurities. I then poured the NaOH into the A1 2 (S04) 3 . 
I did this because this is one of the few cases where it makes a difference 
how you mix two solutions. Al(OH)3 is soluble in NaOH, and if I had 
added the A1 2 (S0 4 ) 3 to the NaOH, the first Al(OH) 3 formed would 
have dissolved in the excess NaOH and the weights would have come 
out wrong. I then stirred the mixture of white precipitate and colorless 
liquid so as to be sure all the precipitate was formed. When I had stirred 
it several minutes, I got a filter-paper and weighed it and filtered the 
mixture. After I had gotten all of the filtrate out of the beaker and 
onto the filter-paper, I washed it several times with distilled water. I 
did this because I knew that some of the Na 2 S04 that was formed would 
adhere to the Al(OH) 3 , and when it dried would, make the weight come 
out wrong. I let the precipitate drain one whole night, and then the 
next morning I wrapped it up and put it in a sand-bath to dry on the 
radiator. To illustrate the amount of water in the precipitate I weighed 
it before and after drying, and the weights were (with filter-paper) 63 
and 7.85 grams respectively. 

There are a great many chemical principles illustrated by the reac- 
tion involved in this experiment. The first of these was double replace- 
ment. Double replacement is when two compounds react to form two 
new compounds. This was illustrated by the equation representing the 
reaction that took place; A1 2 (S0 4 ) 3 ' i8H 2 0-f6NaOH = 3Na 2 S04 -f- 
sAl(OH) 3 + i8H 2 0. The Al in the A1 2 (S0 4 )3 changed places with 
the Na in the NaOH, forming Na 2 S0 4 and Al(OH) 3 . The reaction also 
set free eighteen parts water of crystallization. 

The law of conservation of mass is illustrated by the fact that the 
weights of materials put together (left side of equation) balanced the 
weights of products formed (right side of equation). 21.34 grams 
Al 2 (S04)s ' i8H 2 reacted with 7.69 grams NaOH to form 13.65 grams 



142 DIRECTING STUDY 

Na 2 SC>4, S grams A1(0H) 3 and 10.38 grams H 2 0. The weights on each 
side of the equation totalled 29.03 grams. 

Molecular weight means the number of times the molecule of any 
substance is as heavy as the H atom. For instance, the molecular weight 
of A1 2 (S04) 3 " i8H 2 is 666. (The molecular weight is obtained by 
adding the atomic weights.) The 666 means that the single molecule 
of A1 2 (SC>4)3 ' 18H2O is 666 times as heavy as a single atom of H. 

Atomic weight means the number of times the atom of any element 
is as heavy as the H atom. In the equation the atomic weight of Al 
was 27. That meant that the atom of Al was twenty-seven times as 
heavy as the H atom, taking the H atom as one. 

Valence is very well illustrated in this reaction. Valence means the 
number of univalent ions necessary to combine with or replace one atom 
or ion of any other substance. This was illustrated by the fact that in 
the formula A1 2 (SC>4)3 the valence of Al was three and the valence of 
SO* was two. Therefore, we took two Al's and three S0 4 's, thus balanc- 
ing them by giving each a valence of six. 

The law of definite proportions is that every compound has a definite 
composition by weight. This was illustrated by the fact that the same 
amount of A1 2 (S04) 3 always reacts with the same amount of NaOH to 
form the same amounts of H 2 0, Al(OH) 3 , and Na 2 SC>4 in each case. 

The ionization theory is illustrated by the fact that the compounds 
break up and form new compounds. From this it is only reasonable to 
assume that the compound broke up into the ions formed in the new 
combinations. 

These are the most important of the principles involved in this experi- 
ment. I learned from the experiment that to do a thing correctly you 
must be accurate, think before you do things, and observe carefully. 
—(Douglas, fifteen and a half years old.) 

(Needless to say Dick and Douglas have learned to study. They 
appear not to be innocent of thinking.) 

Incidentally these two boys, Dick and Douglas, 
have presented their work in good (not correct) Eng- 
lish. The practice of writing "themes" in the Eng- 
lish classes with a high degree of frequency, quite re- 
gardless of any vital or created interest in the topics 
assigned, may prove to be far less productive than the 
practice of utilizing materials in other courses which 
the pupil is pursuing. These boys were not made ex- 
plicitly aware that they were writing "themes." Good 



THE LEARNING PROCESS 143 

work, clear thinking, in any department must be ex- 
pressed in good English. The department of English 
should establish organic relations with every other 
department in the school and draw into the procedure 
such material as is illustrated in these examples. The 
use of mathematics in the latter is equally suggestive 
of a vital co-operation in another direction. 



CHAPTER IV 

ORGANIZING PRINCIPLES AND DIFFERENTIALS 

Principles of Procedure. — Two guides to procedure 
are suggested: 

i. We need to consider definite organizing principles, 
clear-cut unifying core-ideas, co-ordinating challenges, in 
order that a common basis may be established for produc- 
tive forms of discussion and for economical ways of 
carrying on the work of a group of individuals. 

2. Within the common medium, a described circle, an 
organizing principle, or some co-ordinating ideal we 
should be constantly alert to individual differences, and 
should make deliberate provision for differentials, with 
several transmissions ahead, in order that no individual 
in the group shall be tempted to retire from the game, or 
be tempted to fall into passive attention, or induced to 
become a mere observer or spectator. 

These two guides are best conceived as interlocking 
suggestions in a procedure in which the social prin- 
ciple (Chapter VI) is constantly employed as a clutch 
to throw the belts on the individual generators, and 
also to unify and to coordinate our ideals. 

Challenge is used to designate the new indeterminate 
assignment. It takes the place of the conventional 
daily assignment of "lessons." The challenge may be 
a day's work, a part of a day's work, or several days' 
work. It will be observed that the principle of a com- 
mon medium upon which collective teaching rests is 

144 



PRINCIPLES AND DIFFERENTIALS 145 

provided. For the uniform lesson and minimum essen- 
tials of content organizing principles are substituted. 
It will be observed further that the claims of indi- 
viduality are met by making continuous and delib- 
erate provision for differentials within the challenge 
or organizing principle. Some canyon is selected for 
the prospecting party. The members of the group do 
not disperse into scattering units in a loose organiza- 
tion to wander afield in any direction at the caprice 
of inexperienced guides. But when the canyon is se- 
lected, the members of the group are not required to 
march in lock-step organization. They may not al- 
ways be in sight of each other. They are at all times 
within the potential control of the director. 

Procedure Illustrating the Operation of Principles 
for Unity and Differentials for Variety. — Let us study, 
now, a number of illustrations to get the feel and drift 
from passivity in the recitation mode to the spirit of 
work, the zest of attention, the joy of achievement in 
a productive form of directed teaching. 

A class in algebra has been called to order. Twenty- 
eight vigorous, "free," conversing, joyous boys and 
girls have come to attention. The recitation begins. 
The lesson assigned the previous day was ten exercises 
in factoring. Twenty pupils are sent to the board 
with directions to number alternately one, two. All 
"ones" write the solutions of the exercises numbered 
odd; "twos," the exercises numbered even. The pupils 
at their seats take their morning siesta for the time 
being. In a few moments pupils are seated and ex- 
planations are read from the board. In ten minutes 
the lesson is "said," and the repetition and further 
delineation of the obvious are about to begin. 



146 DIRECTING STUDY 

At this juncture, with thirty-five minutes of the 
class period left, it was suggested by a professional 
associate that every pupil get on his mark, and work 
forward as rapidly as possible. At once the belts were 
beginning to be slipped on the generators; the game 
was on. The teacher became a director of activity, a 
consulting expert, a guide; each pupil in a challenge 
with a unifying principle (factoring was the organizing 
principle now) was leaping forward at his own best 
rate. 

The pupil or pupils who encountered particular 
difficulty in parts of the challenge grouped around the 
teacher in the corner of the room or at the board, and 
found a way of making the hurdle; all were alive and 
moving freely, coming to the visiting associate and the 
teacher to check results; one pupil forging ahead, al- 
most at the end of the challenge, was called (promoted) 
to assist in checking the work in this beehive of in- 
dustry; at one point the attention of the whole group 
was arrested by the teacher, who, by moving in this 
new intellectual game, discovered the need of referring 
to a crucial point in the organizing principle; two 
minutes of clear elucidation and every pupil was con- 
tributing to the making of the dust of industry. Here 
in one part of the room were four pupils in a group 
working under the management of James, who was 
expounding some principle with apt illustration. 

At the end of this part of the class period, converted 
into a real directing-study movement, these pupils in 
thirty-five minutes had solved in a forward-moving 
challenge from six to fifty exercises: three pupils solved 
less than ten exercises, four solved more than forty, 
and the other members of the class ranged along from 



PRINCIPLES AND DIFFERENTIALS 147 

ten to forty. This work was adequately checked in 
the class period. It was necessary to introduce a new 
set of exercises in the general challenge to have the 
emerging upper third of this class employed. 

The new procedure in this illustrative exercise was 
based upon two conceptions: (i) an organizing prin- 
ciple to think with — to carry the load, as it were, and 
(2) within this principle " doable" parts of the chal- 
lenge. Factoring was that organizing principle; the 
exercises arrayed provided material for differentials. 
All members of the class employ (think) the organizing 
principle; each pupil works up to his capacity within 
the challenge. 

It is not essential that every pupil shall solve all the 
possible parts of a challenge in order that an under- 
standing of the organizing principle shall be gripped. 
In fact, both the organizing principle and the materials 
of instruction are indeterminate (not indefinite). The 
upper limit of exercises to be factored has not been 
reached nor has the principle of factoring been ex- 
hausted. Even the pupil solving six exercises was in- 
corporating the principle, thinking it, living it, al- 
though not as fully perhaps as the pupil at the upper 
end in this particular part of the challenge. In other 
words, it is exceedingly difficult to make any state- 
ment of a pupil's comprehension of a fundamental 
principle. Quantitative measurement of results throws 
some light on the problem. 

Is it not perfectly clear that an assignment of ten 
exercises for an outside preparation by all alike is not 
only stupid but actually immoral pedagogy ? To hitch 
together twenty-eight pupils in collective teaching in 
any attempt to march in lock-step introduces a whole 



148 DIRECTING STUDY 

progeny of pernicious errors. The demonstration of 
a new procedure, just illustrated, points clearly to the 
conclusion that it would be a dishonesty for a con- 
siderable majority of this class to be led to accept an 
irreducible common minimum of ten exercises as a 
real lesson, only to come together to hear the lesson 
"said." The set-lesson is hardly fair for one falling 
conspicuously below it after making an honest effort 
to master it. 

Let it be remembered that pupils at work do not 
turn off equal amounts; they do not read with equal 
understanding, even though their reading rates may be 
approximately the same. The indeterminate factors 
are there constantly making for differentiation. The 
way out is not to bring together in class sections pupils 
of equal ability. No two individuals are equal in ca- 
pacity. In every class the pupil should be regarded 
as the educative unit. If so, then differences, such as 
appeared in the class at work in mathematics, just 
described, will arise. It is only in a mythical world 
that the average pupil finds a habitat. 

In the last illustration the reader will note the fact 
that the assignment (challenge) was begun in class 
after the first ten minutes; for thirty-five minutes the 
challenge was pursued by every member of the class 
with almost a maximum, not a uniform, efficiency. At 
all events, no one was idle, passive, or indifferent. 
They all took to it as ducks to water, and it is an in- 
dication of a sound educational philosophy if the pupils 
take to work and feel a bit put out if they are asked 
to set it aside and listen to an explanation. 

Some of these pupils in this demonstration, those 
in the lower third in that day's work — not in the lowest 



PRINCIPLES AND DIFFERENTIALS 149 

third by the grace of God and an act of parliament — 
needed to be urged to continue the challenge outside 
of class. They did it. Others in the class who had 
exceeded the old speed-limit by doing two or three 
days' work in thirty-five minutes — work that would 
have made two or three lessons in the lesson-hearing 
school — they, too, continued their challenge, but in a 
different way. We shall grip this aspect of our problem 
later in shaping up the home-study situation. 

The Topic Method, an Emphasis on Variety. — The 
claims of individuality have been asserted over and 
over again. The topic method is an expression of the 
need of variety. No doubt much profitable work has 
been accomplished by stimulating pupils to work out 
individual projects. In fact, in the upper years of the 
high school excellent results may be attained by hav- 
ing pupils work up comprehensive problems, taking 
the form of an exhaustive study of topics (projects) in 
history, English, science, etc. In handling these prob- 
lems in the class period an opportunity is afforded for 
some very productive forms of discussion and partici- 
pation. It requires, however, a high order of leader- 
ship to avoid a perfunctory reading of written reports, 
and a nauseous inactivity of the members of the class 
merely paying attention. Unrelated topics or problems 
do not provide a basis for the recognition of our first 
guide, viz., an organizing principle. The second guide, 
differentials, is apparently met. 

The difficulty lies in the fact that there are no in- 
tegrating, cohesive bonds which knit together the in- 
terests of the group. There is likely to be separation 
with only an artificial and external unity. The teacher 
who employs the topic procedure productively will be 



150 DIRECTING STUDY 

required to work faithfully into the topics himself in 
order that he may enter into a vital discussion of them 
with the class and the pupil. 

It is possible to work out the co-operative challenge 
or "project," in which many aspects of the common 
principle are offered as contributory problems. There 
may be as many distinct problems raised within the 
co-operative challenge as there are members of the 
class; or pupils may work at a few major problems or 
topics in group partnerships. 

All subjects of the curriculum offer abundant oppor- 
tunities for this type of analysis and procedure. The 
topics or problems are related to each other, and are 
bound up in a common organizing principle. The in- 
dividual report is a part of an organized unity. By 
careful selection of related and contributory topics 
within a realization or principle, discussion may be 
made vital for every member of the class. 

The practice of desultory reading of unrelated themes, 
essays, topics, reports, etc., with both teacher and class, 
save one at a time, reduced to observers, may be obvi- 
ated by employing these two major guides. 

The Co-operative Project and Differentiation. — The 
suggestion of a co-operative challenge, in which pro- 
vision is made for differentiation either for individuals 
or for groups of individuals is not new at all. It has 
been employed effectively in reviewing a subject. The 
possibilities of pursuing new work by this procedure 
are not as fully recognized. It would seem to be a 
fruitful departure to approach the study of a new chal- 
lenge in this manner in those courses in which there is 
a wealth of material and many aspects of the challenge 
to be surveyed. 



PRINCIPLES AND DIFFERENTIALS 151 

For example, a history class (12th grade) was about 
to pursue the Monroe Doctrine. The procedure hit 
upon illustrates the point in question. A and B were 
selected to report on the European situation at the 
time the "doctrine" was promulgated. M and N 
made a study of the work of John Hay in China. 
and R worked on the Venezuelan problem. E and F 
took Article X of the League of Nations, etc., etc. 
Each group was made responsible for the particular 
task assigned to it. Study was not limited to a single 
phase of the problem. As soon as any group mastered 
its own specific part of the challenge, another phase 
of it was taken up. Some pupils studied all aspects 
of the problem. 

Each pupil was interested in every one of the re- 
ports, and was able to enter into a vital participation 
as an intelligent reacting agent. Every individual in- 
terest in the study was looped up within the common 
organizing principle. After this study and discussion 
of the Monroe Doctrine, it is needless to say the "doc- 
trine" was not fully comprehended; the assignment 
was indeterminate, yet very definite, in that the ma- 
terial was not exhausted. The discussion of it was not 
finished. The "principle," itself, had not reached its 
final form. The Monroe Doctrine was not finished. 
This illustration is intended to suggest a line of de- 
parture; it is by no means exhaustive or final. 

Endless Differentiation. — The reader may have al- 
ready become weary of illustrations of the procedure 
contemplated in this study. The only justification 
offered for multiplying examples is the fact that no 
single method or type can be laid down as a final rule 
of practice. 



152 DIRECTING STUDY 

Life is fenced round with prohibitions which the young ex- 
plorer must not be allowed to ignore. But within the circle 
thus marked out there is infinite room for his activity. Even 
when the moral law is positive and not merely permissive, obedi- 
ence may take forms endless and incalculable; thus a motorist, 
it has been said, best shows his love for his neighbor by keeping 
to the right of the road. It is manifest that there is no limit 
to the number of life-patterns into which good or blameless ac- 
tions may be woven, and that it is impossible- to formulate in 
advance the concrete principle of excellence of any of them.* 

All of these illustrations of class periods conducted 
upon the application of the social principle are in- 
tended to present situations in which attitudes of 
teachers and pupils may be cultivated in the direction 
of responsible self-activity and fruitful participation. 

Responsibilities of New Teacher as Director of Ac- 
tivity. — Work shyness is a very common malady in the 
lesson-hearing school. It is due, in very large measure, 
to a lesion of the social sense. Pupils are brought to- 
gether and yet kept apart in the recitation system. 
No matter to what extent uniformity is insisted upon, 
the fact of individual differences is constantly mani- 
fested. Codes, adopted with enthusiasm, are found 
to be in constant need of reinterpretation. The aim 
in the following examples is to stimulate our thinking 
along some lines of possible release of potentialities 
of both pupils and teachers. 

There is no algebraic formula to be laid down in a 
cold, administrative manner. By entering upon the 
adventure with a determination to take the moral 
hazard at the fork of the road, teaching becomes a 
process in which developing powers are progressively 
realized. 

* Nunn, T. Percy, Education, Its Data and First Principles, p. 6. 



PRINCIPLES AND DIFFERENTIALS 153 

Imagination is needed. "For our sentiments and passions 
furnish in great part the premises with which intelligence works; 
they are the pigments, so to speak, with which we paint the 
picture. And so with the collective aspect; discussion is far 
more than an interchange of ideas; it is also an interaction of 
feelings which are sometimes conveyed by words and sometimes 
by gestures, tones, glances of eye, and by all sorts of deeds. The 
whole psychic current works itself up by complex interaction 
and synthesis. Intelligence, in the fullest sense, is wisdom, and 
draws upon every resource of the mind." * 

Codes may be carried out in a rigid, relentless, im- 
personal, quantitative manner. The new teacher, 
however, finds in the social principle a dynamic in a 
moving stream, and works into new situations with 
increasing inventiveness and adaptability. The quali- 
ties of the referee and the glorified umpire are highly 
desirable. This new director of activity develops a fine 
sense of tolerance in becoming adept in seeing many 
modes of excellence, and in utilizing a variety of en- 
couragers to good work. By elevating teaching to the 
higher reaches of leadership and guidance the teacher 
is no longer a "keeper" of school and a "hearer" of 
lessons; scholarship is recreated in the larger per- 
spective of the challenge or problem level of teaching. 

The new teacher does not prepare himself to meet 
his class by mastery of a "lesson " and a formalized 
technic by which to conduct the "lesson." All that is 
secondary, perhaps essential at times.f The gripping 

* Cooley, C. H., Social Process, p. 357. 

t The following diary written by a college senior in the Wisconsin high 
school of the University of Wisconsin illustrates the procedure as it ap- 
plies to prospective teachers in their preparation through participation 
(not practice teaching) : 

"In my preparation for to-day I found that I could translate the sen- 
tences on the page assigned, give constructions, etc., with no difficulty. 



154 DIRECTING STUDY 

of organizing principles in handling the materials of 
instruction and preparation for stimulating and guid- 
ing mental life are essential for every teacher. There 
is always the new boy and there is always the fact that 
the boy moves. 

The reader may be interested in further examples 
which serve to emphasize the teacher as director of 
action, consulting expert, referee, umpire, encourager, 
stimulating guide. No matter what particular form 
of action, or method in the deeper sense, is focussed 
upon, the ideal of directing study in this interpretation 
is protected and illustrated just so long as all mem- 
bers of the class are at work; just so long as the human 
generators are belted up for productive work; just so 
long as no one is compelled merely to pay attention or 
to appear to do so. 

Purpose of Illustrative Exercises. — The distinctive 
characteristic of directing study is the variety of pro- 



What I did was substantially as follows: I detected a possible reference 
to the gerundive construction. I was not sure that I would need to ex- 
plain it, inasmuch as I had not a predetermined plan to follow in detail. 
So I went over that pretty thoroughly so that in the event I should be 
called upon or in case I had an opportunity to make use of the gerundive 
I could acquit myself with credit. I thought of some possible stories, 
suggested by certain material in the sentence exercises. So I reinforced 
my supply of stories and allusions. Then there was, it seemed to me, 
a good chance to work on derivative blanks, in case we got along well 
in the class period. So I arranged some extra background upon which 
to focus this particular work for the day. Needless to say, I did not 
expect to use all these points I have mentioned. Nor did I go into de- 
tail with minute plans as to how I would proceed if called upon to re- 
spond in any one of the many ways this opportunity presents. I am 
fully aware now that I must have at my command a hundred times more 
than I can hope to use in a particular class period. One must be forti- 
fied in many ways to cope with pupils in a classroom where all work 
forward and where no upper limit is set for any one." 



PRINCIPLES AND DIFFERENTIALS 155 

cedure. No single model can be described with any 
assurance that the essential movement in it can be 
imitated. The illustrations of procedures are not in- 
tended to serve as copies to be duplicated, but rather 
as hints to establish in our thinking about teaching 
lines of departure and certain attitudes toward boys 
and girls at work. It is not to be concluded that the 
one and only sure way to success has been disclosed, 
nor that the study or challenge has been exhausted. 
What we are interested in doing is to suggest possibili- 
ties for the release of energy and the development of 
initiative. 

Once the journey is begun in the direction of 
prospecting on one's own account, new and unsus- 
pected powers are cultivated and realized (actually 
created) in the adventure. In other words, that qual- 
ity of originality, so highly prized in good teaching, 
grows by exercise in the direction of successful ex- 
perimentation; it is not a quality possessed as a gift. 
One's originative and inventive powers are developed 
through exercise in situations requiring purposeful 
adaptation. "Model lessons" followed with a literal 
and slavish devotion are deadening. 

The aim in these illustrations is frankly to stimulate 
interest in similar adventures. "Trial and success" 
may be safely relied upon wherever there is a keen 
sense of responsibility. Teachers should be encour- 
aged in applying the experimental method. If there 
is being developed increasing capacity for self-direction 
and self-criticism, a foundation is laid for the achieve- 
ment of desirable objectives in the new procedure. 

A Bit of <)th-Grade English. — A class in English 
had worked two days on Shakespeare's "Julius Caesar." 



156 DIRECTING STUDY 

During the second day's work it was suggested that 
the teacher or some pupil might turn to any part of 
the play and begin to read. All the pupils had their 
books at hand. As soon as any pupil, or teacher if a 
pupil read, found the place he would stand up. When 
three or four had found the place they were given 
recognition by having the results recorded on the 
board. The names of pupils and teacher were posted 
on the board. Opposite the name of the pupil who 
was first to rise, 4 was placed, 3 opposite the name 
of the pupil who was second, and 2 and 1 opposite 
the third and fourth respectively. In the course of 
the hour — it proved to be an interesting intellectual 
game — every pupil in the class had won some rec- 
ognition. The reader had skipped about, reading 
altogether parts of twenty passages. In some in- 
stances the reading was continued for several lines 
before the pupils made the connections. The total 
score was easily found and all members of the class 
could see their ratings. 

The surprising thing about this procedure was the 
fact that one boy in the class made a respectable show- 
ing despite the fact that in previous assignments of 
memorizing work he had failed utterly. Without be- 
laboring the point is it not evident that something of 
the spirit of the game caught the imagination of these 
9th-grade boys and girls? A functional outlook upon 
memorizing might be mentioned in passing. 

Following this particular day's work this suggestion 
was made: "Suppose we come prepared in a day or 
two to give from memory as many lines of 'Julius Caesar' 
as we can, each in his own tongue." Pupils selected, 
as they willed, such passages as appealed to them. In- 



PRINCIPLES AND DIFFERENTIALS 157 

stead of the literary canon, the cafeteria plan was em- 
ployed, i. e., there was freedom of selection within the 
circle described. This is liberty armed with the law. 
The teacher refused to select the food for the pupils. 

The conventional comment at this juncture is that 
pupils will not rise to that sort of a challenge; that 
they will certainly take a moral holiday and return 
next day with all sorts of excuses for not doing the 
assignment. In this particular instance, however, the 
next session of the class revealed a different story. 
Thirty-two pupils in this class, and three college seniors 
preparing to teach, made the following score: the 
pupil having the least number of lines offered 15; 
the pupil having the highest number of lines gave 156; 
and the pupil who felt the sting of defeat was second 
with 148 lines. This fact of human reaction is known 
by all those who appreciate true sportsmanship in the 
great adventure of love and the joyously serious busi- 
ness of athletics. The median was between 50 and 
60 lines. 

No pupil failed in this challenge; the college seniors 
were not far from the median; the teacher himself 
frankly said that he could not render as many lines as 
the upper third in the class that day. Again, the scores 
were written on the board opposite the names of the 
pupils. Printed lists of the names of pupils will serve 
to economize time and energy in giving attention to 
publicity of results. 

It is perfectly obvious in this illustration that all 
pupils could not be called on to give their lines before 
the whole class. Only three or four pupils were se- 
lected for this privilege, among them the boy who 
had prepared fifteen lines. A system of partnerships 



158 DIRECTING STUDY 

was worked out. One pupil gave his lines to another; 
small groups were formed in which some one was se- 
lected to give his lines to the larger audience. 

Even the most satisfactory type of " lesson" under 
the old procedure, in which the practice is that of as- 
signing a set lesson of thirty lines to be committed to 
memory by all alike, could not conceivably be regarded 
as productive as the work just described. Let it be 
granted that all would learn accurately the thirty lines 
in the conventional practice; no provision is made in 
that school for the release of potentialities. There is 
no stimulus there for the pupils who can and would 
do five times thirty lines. 

In this class in English it was suggested that the 
members of the group decide who, all things considered, 
did the best. The astonishing thing happened: Wil- 
liam with his fifteen lines received a significant vote. 
No one believed William would be able to stand up 
in front of his peers and speak his lines, "Friends, 
Romans, Countrymen," etc.; but he did. William 
had advanced his stock by giving the class within a 
fortnight a description of the Baldwin locomotive 
compound. William knew more about it perhaps than 
all the class put together, including the teacher. He 
expressed himself, to their amazement, in good, lucid 
English, whereas his habit had been to express himself 
rather badly. His English fared better when tied up 
in a locomotive than it did in the categories of his 
teacher of English. William's particular mode of ex- 
cellence was appreciated; a recognition of alternate 
leaderships was beginning to be manifested. There 
was something wholesome in this expression of his 
work, even though he did not deserve such generous 
recognition in presenting Shakespeare. 



PRINCIPLES AND DIFFERENTIALS 159 

Publicity of results may be employed in many stimu- 
lating directions. Even the quantitative presentation 
of results may be subjected to a refinement of analysis 
beyond the stage of cold figures. For the pupil in this 
class who produced a hundred lines or more to have 
reported with less than twenty lines would have been 
occasion for the frown of his fellow critics. 

Developing Interest in the Traditional Material of 
the Curriculum. — The reader will be impressed, no 
doubt, with the fact that no elaborate plea is made 
for going afield in search of interesting material. The 
stir of life may be detected in the curriculum morgue 
in the approach and emphasis presented in this thesis. 
Even decimal points, dubbed by Randolph Churchill 

when chancellor of the Exchequer, as "those 

dots," words, exercises, the conjugation of amo — all 
sorts of materials of instruction may be caught up in 
the challenge in the spirit of the game and, with a com- 
petition that both sweetens life and stirs to action, 
mastered with a remarkable economy and interest. 

Norman MacMunn* tells us that before a "commis- 
sioner for oaths" he would solemnly declare that his 
boys at twelve to fifteen years of age would not leave 
their French verbs for picture-books. f 

A class of 8th-grade "Junior High School" pupils 
worked up a word contest in Latin. Five hundred 
words were selected by pupils and teacher for the try- 
out. When the contest came at the end of two weeks 
the lowest score was above 300; there were six scores 
running from 490 to 500. 

The real problem is not centred in any irreducible 
minimum of content, but clearly in procedure values. 

* MacMunn, Norman. Educational Times, 1914, 467 Jf. 

t Hid. A Path to Freedom in the School, Part II, chaps. I, II. 



160 DIRECTING STUDY 

We of the pioneer days on the frontier may over- 
draw the picture of the old spelling school in which 
we scaled the polysyllabic Alpine peaks, sure to slip 
in crossing the crevasse between the i and e in those 
treacherous ie and ei words. Suffice it to say that 
there was no fun in spelling the easy or the most-used 
words. This remark will be understood as a plea in 
behalf of a new movement to-day in American Edu- 
cation — a plea for a real challenge, a big realization; 
one that looks big, too, in the eyes of the boys and 
girls at a time when there is a craving for a longer 
tether. A spelling sense and a critical attitude toward 
words may sound a bit old-fashioned, yet one may not 
pass for a hopeless lunatic in asserting that many 
earnest strivings after efficiency, systems, and methods 
may, after all, miss the key to a very simple problem. 

An Experiment in Teaching the Bible. — We venture 
to give a brief account of an experiment in Teaching 
the Bible,* to illustrate a bit of consecutive procedure. 
For three years this experiment was conducted in the 
9th grade of the Wisconsin high school of the Uni- 
versity of Wisconsin. The time devoted to it was 
four weeks each year, five hours a week. The work 
was a part of the English course. The main purpose 
in referring to this experiment is to suggest possibilities 
in handling subject-matter and in initiating procedures 
in the regular subjects of the school; practically every 
subject lends itself to some phases of the procedure 
carried out in this experiment. The indeterminate as- 
signment is admirably presented. There are splendid 

* For a full account of this experiment, see The English Journal, vol. 
VII, no. 10, December, 1918: "Teaching the Bible in the Junior High 
School," by Charles S. Pendleton. 



PRINCIPLES AND DIFFERENTIALS 161 

challenges in which unifying principles and provisions 
for differentials are clearly set forth. Mutual teach- 
ing, co-operative learning, a modus vivendi founded 
upon vision and promising emancipations, a vigorous 
working group, are illustrated. 

(a) In a preliminary discussion the teacher brought out very 
clearly what the Bible is about as a whole, carefully explained 
the meaning of the terms Religion, Theology, and Bible Stories, 
showing that the last are neither Religion nor Theology, and 
that nearly all literature refers to them, and finally made it per- 
fectly clear to the pupils that all forms of belief will be respected. 
One day was spent in preparation for the journey. 

(b) The next day 280 Tissot Bible pictures full of remark- 
able detail in Oriental color were found on the walls of the class- 
room. Each picture bears a serial number and a Bible reference. 
Each pupil took a sheet of paper and spent the hour looking at 
the pictures, writing the numbers of those the stories of which 
he could not give. This was individual work. The teacher was 
the captain or leader of the group. The pupil was asked to re- 
hearse to himself the story connected with every picture he was 
sure of. Usually this work continued two days. 

(c) Then each pupil was requested to bring from home his 
own Bible. A shelf was cleared for the storage of these Bibles. 
Each pupil was then set to work to look up in his Bible the stories 
of all pictures which were listed on his pad as unknown. All 
kinds of Bibles and substitutes for Bibles were found in this 
collection. The school furnished three or four copies of Pro- 
fessor Moulton's book — The Modem Reader's Bible. In this 
part of the experiment the teacher was a consulting expert and 
a responsible executive. An excellent pupil was called to assist 
those who were in difficulty. Usually three days were given to 
this phase of the work. It is interesting to note that the pupils 
from Jewish homes knew all the Old Testament stories. No 
difficulty was met in having them study the New Testament 
stories when it was tactfully pointed out that subsequent work 
in English would require familiarity with them, if the excellent 
pupil was to succeed in the game. One pupil, realizing that she 



162 DIRECTING STUDY 

knew too little about the Bible, became interested in Professor 
Moulton's book and read it quite through. 

id) The next step was a written test on the pictures, given 
not to secure a grade for record, but to encourage the excellent 
pupils and to stimulate the backward; and also to unify the 
work of the class. The class was divided into several groups. 
Numbers referring to pictures were written on the board for 
each group. Pupils spent the hour alternating between bulletin- 
board and desk. They wrote the story of each picture in the 
test, each pupil relying strictly on his own resources. The 
teacher graded the papers roughly, picking out excellent pupils 
for praise, others for more stimulus. 

(e) Then followed the stage of telling Bible stories, occupy- 
ing as many days in oral work as appeared to be interesting and 
productive. Frequently a pupil chairman was selected who 
called on pupils and directed the discussion. The teacher, al- 
though in the background, was always the responsible executive, 
setting the general task, controlling the discussion, holding an 
unobtrusive grip on every stage of the procedure. 

(/) Usually two days of story-telling in competition followed. 
Each pupil selected his own narrative and gave it in his own 
way before the class. All took notes on each other's perform- 
ance, and at the end of the competition votes were taken by 
ballot to name the pupils who had distinguished themselves. 

(g) The next step was the citation of references to the Bible 
in literature. During the competition in story-telling the pupils 
were looking for this material out of class. They were asked 
to find three or four or more. Some would present perhaps a 
dozen, all the way from Milton to the Good Housekeeping Maga- 
zine. The references were written by the pupils on slips of paper 
and handed in. The teacher read them, calling for the under- 
lying Bible story. An amazing efficiency was developed in two 
or three weeks in identifying even obscure references. 

(h) With a day or two of warning an hour was profitably 
spent in giving quotations from the Bible. Practice was given 
in stating the context from which the quotation was made. 

(i) The experiment now turned to the invention of fiction 
based on Bible stories. To prepare the way for this bit of pro- 
cedure the teacher explained such conspicuous works as Ben 
Hur, The Other Wise Man, and Paradise Lost. The pupils made 



PRINCIPLES AND DIFFERENTIALS 163 

up their Bible stories and read them to the class. Possible sub- 
jects were suggested such as, a Philistine boy who serves in 
the army with Goliath, a slave girl of the train of the Queen of 
Sheba tells of the visit to Solomon's court. As soon as a pupil 
finished one tale he was free to begin another; some pupils wrote 
no less than a half-dozen stories each. A check list was used 
giving publicity to each pupil's accomplishment. Every pupil 
did something; no upper limit was placed on any one by re- 
quiring a minimum. 

(J) Dramatization followed very naturally. Pupils were in- 
vited to group themselves informally in twos, threes, or fours to 
present Bible stories exactly as they were or with modification. 
Two or three days were given to this work. The Hagar and 
Ishmael drama was given with elaborate invention. David 
slew Goliath with much gusto. 

(k) The class, as a rule, returned to the story-telling for a 
few days. 

Each year this experiment, occupying four weeks' 
time with each class, proved a demonstration of the 
thesis of this discussion. Unsuspected possibilities of 
pupils were revealed. Pupils who could hardly give a 
half-dozen Bible stories with passing accuracy and 
readiness at the outset very frequently came through 
with an amazing facility in half or more of the 280 
used in this unit of work. Some were able to give more 
than 90 per cent of them. 

In every case there was work for the pupil, no matter 
what his accomplishment was at the beginning of the 
experiment. Here every pupil was an individual, not 
a number; also there was abundant opportunity to 
develop the co-operative individual. 

This experiment is valuable in our discussion for 
what it carries as suggestion in procedures for prac- 
tically all units of work in all subjects of the curricu- 
lum. 



164 DIRECTING STUDY 

Culminating Problems or " Projects " in Estab- 
lished Courses. — The practice of topping out a course 
in science, history, or English with a large unit of work, 
either on the individual or co-operative basis, is sug- 
gestive. The capacity of high-school pupils to select 
and organize material in such adventures has been 
demonstrated time and again. In one direction elabo- 
rate and profitable forms of experimental work may 
be conducted; in another, interesting and valuable 
accounts of constructive and mechanical ability may 
be shown; in still another direction, excellent results 
may be had in presenting topics worked out of source 
material as well as interpretation of facts and con- 
clusions gained from readings upon a given problem. 

For example, in two classes in chemistry some six 
or eight weeks before the close of a year's course the 
pupils were given a choice of problems, such as pho- 
tography, washing-powders, inks, coal-tar, fertilizers, 
garbage, cement, soils, electrochemistry, manufacture 
of paper. A hundred of such were listed. 

The work was conducted in a manner that assured 
application and intelligent procedure. Each pupil in 
these two classes of the school in which this type of 
work is being carried on reported to the staff teacher 
each week, indicating the progress made in his topic. 
Two days each week were given over to experimental 
work on these various problems in the laboratory under 
the general direction of the teacher. The teacher be- 
came a consulting expert, a counsellor, a director. 
Each pupil in the course pursued his chosen problem 
for several weeks (some sixty hours). The pupil found 
it necessary to grip the principles of chemistry, and 
to make application of those principles in the develop- 
ment of his particular problem or "project." 



PRINCIPLES AND DIFFERENTIALS 165 

The results of these individual studies — in some cases 
two pupils would work up a problem together — were 
exhibited in the school at the close of the year. The 
exhibit was open to the public. The pupils took pride 
in explaining their work to visitors. Charts were used 
to illustrate the results of this study. All this work 
was rooted in the experimental and demonstrational 
procedure; the pupil used the laboratory method in 
solving his problem. The literature was used as a 
means in working up a final report as well as in dis- 
covering the scientific method to be employed in the 
laboratory. 

Much might be written to show the keen sense of 
responsibility pupils develop in this work. They are 
not sent to a task to work blindly on some artificial 
lesson. There is a genuine earnestness and zest in it 
from the beginning. The fact that the pupil may 
choose a problem which appeals to him is a splendid in- 
centive. His work is controlled by vitalizing purposes. 

There is unity in this work; there is variety also. 
The principles have been developed in a common co- 
operative procedure. Principles of oxidation are the 
same for boys and girls; there is no sex line in such 
matters. Each individual must do his own breathing; 
each must make use of the same organizing principle. 

The conception of a culminating "project" is vigor- 
ously defended. It is absurd to believe that education 
can be negotiated in terms of original inclinations or 
chance interests. After backgrounds are built up and 
ways of thinking are developed and some technics 
are mastered, it is perfectly clear that individual ap- 
plications may be made. This example in chemistry 
illustrates the point of departure. There was, also, 
a sound basis for shared activity. Every pupil was 



166 DIRECTING STUDY 

interested in the progress and outcome, not alone of 
his own "project," but of his neighbors' work. All 
were vitally interested in the class discussion centred 
about these problems. There were both a unifying 
core of interests and clear-cut differentials in the ex- 
periment. 

Physics, agriculture, biology, offer similar oppor- 
tunities to loop up enthusiasms, and to assist boys 
and girls in handling effectively and productively 
realizations which make their appeal to youth. The 
spirit of inquiry and the challenge of a man's job are 
made to count in many valuable ways. The boy in- 
terested in radio is able under this type of guidance 
to organize his information and to express himself in 
a remarkable manner. 

It may be the means of creating an abiding interest 
in science or invention or in some worthy vocation. 
The immediate value lies in the fact that such an in- 
terest serves as a dominant motive for the organization 
of his life. It serves for the time being as a vocational 
motive. William James speaks of one's different selves. 
In a certain situation some one self is dominant. Dur- 
ing adolescence tremendous motives for recombination 
of selves are evident. Some dominant interest around 
which all the other interests cluster becomes the means 
of building personality. That dominant motive which 
serves to synthesize one's interests may be regarded 
as a vocational motive: it is the way the individual 
builds himself. 

We have in mind a boy who was failing in his high- 
school English while at the same time he was build- 
ing transformers and the Tesla coil and reading every 
book and pamphlet he could find on these lines. After 
he had succeeded in constructing his apparatus he 



PRINCIPLES AND DIFFERENTIALS 167 

was able to stand up before the class in chemistry and 
physics and elucidate his subject in good (not correct) 
and interesting English. He could expound his sub- 
ject for an hour or more in connected English. He 
did it quite as effectively as a professor in a university. 
He frankly admitted (a fifteen-year-old boy) that he 
was bored by poetry and the major requirements of 
the English course; yet he had read intelligently some 
2,000 pages of technical matter on his particular proj- 
ect. The inference is not to dismiss English or any- 
thing else from this boy's prescribed temptations. Per- 
haps it is well to remark, parenthetically, that the 
thing of primary interest here is the fact that this boy 
did read and concentrate with marvellous effective- 
ness when his reading had in it a purpose. When the 
solution of a problem, real to him, depended upon the 
mastery of the printed page, he read a prodigious 
amount of it — far more than any curriculum-makers 
would dare prescribe. It does not mean that other 
values are to be neglected. Such examples serve to 
emphasize the futility of making a fetich of the reci- 
tation of daily set lessons. And yet it is maintained 
in this thesis that even the literary canon may be nego- 
tiated in a problem-solving procedure, if only the work 
is cast up in clear-cut purposeful objectives. 

Plan in the New Procedure. — Plan in these pro- 
cedures just described inheres in the processes of de- 
velopment. It is that interpretation of plan which 
is self-originating, self -directing, immanent, constant, 
and growing. Teacher and pupils contribute through 
forms of associated life the social forces of control, direc- 
tion, and interlocking management. It is not an organi- 
zation cut-and-dried but rather a developing impulse 
to unify and co-ordinate ideals. 



168 



DIRECTING STUDY 



No pupil in these experiments covered the ground 
of set assignments. There were nucleated and per- 
vasive foci which served both to co-ordinate the work 
of the class and at the same time to offer abundant 
opportunity for individual challenge. If there was a 
wide range of individual differences at the beginning, 
there was even a more pronounced range of differences 
in achievement at the close. No one could evaluate 
such work intelligently without becoming impatient 
with the minimum-essential-content doctrine, and the 
lock-step uniformity of the traditional system of edu- 
cation. 

The following tables are appended merely to illus- 
trate possible ways of representing relative frequencies 
of achievement and traits. In Tables I to V the thesis 
of this chapter is illustrated. 





TABLE 


I 
























IO 


11 


12 


13 


14 


15 


16 


17 


18 


19 


20 


21 


22 


23 


24 






i 


1 


1 


1 


1 


1 


1 


1 


2 


2 


2 
3 


1 

3 


1 
4 


2 
4 


2 






i 


1 


2 


1 


2 


1 


1 


2 


3 


3 




Bill 


i 


2 


2 


2 


2 


2 


2 


2 


2 


2 


3 


3 


3 


3 


3 






i 


1 


I 


1 


1 


2 


2 


2 


2 


2 


2 


2 


2 


2 


2 






25 


26 


27 


28 


29 


30 


3i 


32 


33 


34 


35 


36 


37 


38 


39 






3 


3 


3 


3 


3 


3 


3 


4 


4 


4 


3 


3 


4 


4 


4 










4 


4 


























Bill 


3 


3 


4 


4 


4 


4 


4 


4 




















3 


3 


3 


3 


3 


3 


4 


4 


4 


4 


4 


4 










Etc. 

































PRINCIPLES AND DIFFERENTIALS 169 

Table I represents a checking sheet to indicate the amount 
of work accomplished by each pupil in a challenge in geometry, 
continuing in this case four days. The exercises are originals 
selected from the text-book. The checking is done by numbers 
indicating achievement for each pupil each day. Exercises 
checked i represent what the pupil did the first day, etc. 

Another way to keep a record of the work done by each pupil 
is to keep a file of small cards under each pupil's name. The 
challenges are numbered as well as the exercises within each 
challenge. Some symbol as H. W. is used to indicate home work. 
For work in class period a simple check mark is used. 

TABLE II 



J I I I I I 1 

o 500 1000 1500 2000 2500 3000 

Table II represents the amounts of reading done by a third- 
year high-school class in French. Each line represents the 
achievement of a pupil. The base-line indicates the number of 
pages. This challenge was continued through a period of twenty- 
four weeks. The pupils were supplied with books and stimulated 
to read for enjoyment. The reading was done outside the class 
period. The pupil who read about 3,000 pages was doing ex- 
cellent work in four studies. 



170 DIRECTING STUDY 

TABLE III 



25 so 75 ioo 125 150 
TABLE IV 



300 400 500 600 



PRINCIPLES AND DIFFERENTIALS 171 

Table III represents the achievement of a class of pupils in a 
challenge of memorizing lines in one day in their " Julius Caesar," 
9th-grade English. The base-line indicates the number of lines. 
From 15 to 165 lines were mastered. Each line represents the 
work of a pupil. 

Table IV represents achievement in a Latin vocabulary test, 
8th grade, after a period of four weeks. A list of 600 words was 
selected by the teacher and pupils. The score ran from 250 to 
598. 

TABLE V 



iS 



172 DIRECTING STUDY 

TABLE VI 



2 

3 

7 
9 

10 

14 
16 

20 

IS 
6 

3 

2 



Table V represents results in a time test (Courtes test), 8th- 
grade class in arithmetic. Base-line indicates the number of 
problems: the work of each pupil is shown by a horizontal line. 
One pupil solved two problems while another solved seventeen. 

Table VI represents rates of reading (roughly determined) 
of 113 eleventh-grade high-school pupils. Base-line indicates 
number of words read per second; the vertical column repre- 
sents the number reading at the rates indicated by the hori- 
zontal line opposite. 



CHAPTER V 
THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE WORK SPIRIT 

The Appeal in Real Challenge. — There is a whole- 
some and a natural ring in the reaction of the farmer 
boy in Charles Dudley Warner's A Boy on the Farm 
when he declares "He would gladly do all the work if 
somebody else would do the chores." This sane and 
healthy reaction of a real boy may hold the key to the 
solution of our problem of freedom. There is some- 
thing alarmingly wrong with a vigorous boy of thir- 
teen to sixteen who is perfectly contented in the job 
of pulling little weeds, when he might have the manage- 
ment of fifty acres of the farm with a challenge to work 
it as he wills. 

Interest a Function of Work. — The healthy uncor- 
rupted youth rises to a real challenge of his powers. 
A big realization appeals to him. It is futile to try to 
justify a kind of pedagogical purgatory in which a 
theory of "Education as Preparation" is carried out 
into practices in the discipline of little things — little 
facts to be memorized, a mass of material, unrelated to 
a gripping problem, to be assimilated. Then to make 
a bad situation no better, an inordinate amount of 
energy is wasted in a vain reproduction of routine 
matter by some formula with no provision for intel- 
ligent guessing and creativeness. So many pupils 
pursue the multiplication tables, geometry, French, 
botany in a half-hearted way with no hope of over- 
taking them. Interest has been conceived as some 

173 



174 DIRECTING STUDY 

innate quality, or as some artificial, external factor 
that might by some strange coincidence account for 
success. A saner view would seem to be that of re- 
garding interest as a function of work. The only way 
to be assured an abiding interest is to create the work 
spirit. The job must be a real challenge; there must 
be something to do, a real problem, a chance to enhance 
self-esteem by entering upon a vital undertaking. 

The Lesson-Hearing School. — The teacher who al- 
leges that boys and girls can't think is an exponent 
of a very definite type of philosophy, a mechanical 
absolutism that makes it impossible to introduce a 
productive procedure of directing activity. The dogma 
of acceptance is defended against all criticism of re- 
sults. The lesson-hearing school still holds sway; 
teachers hear the lessons "said," unperturbed by the 
enormous waste of time and energy, to make no men- 
tion of the tragic outcome of the dreary, soul-deadening 
process of mechanical education under collective teach- 
ing. 

"The capacity of the human mind to resist the in- 
troduction of knowledge can hardly be overestimated." 
True, perhaps. Yet the boy in his natural state has 
a marvellous protective coloration in his ability to 
resist just that process of indoctrination. The habit 
of loyally co-operating with the teacher to put the 
hour out of its agony is still a persistent practice. The 
boy who whittles school furniture is demonstrating a 
prevailing philosophy of education. There may be 
little else to do. The lecture system does not escape 
indictment in this respect. 

It is not difficult to imagine what goes on in a class 
conducted in the manner described by Professor Mead 



THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE WORK SPIRIT 175 

in a discussion on "Habits of Work," based upon his 
visiting 1,000 teachers at work in one of our foremost 
States in education. A typical example is cited: 

T. Class, come to order ! 

T. Henry, you may read the problem. 

E. A piece of land has a frontage of eighty rods on a street. 
Into how many lots with a frontage of sixty feet can it be 
divided ? 

T. What will you have to do first? 

E. Multiply. (Henry drawls it out.) 

T. Multiply what? (Stop your laughing, Jim! Pay at- 
tention now !) 

E. Rods by feet. 

T. How many feet in one rod, Henry? 

E. Five and a half. 

T. Five and a half ! Why, Henry ! (Be in order over there, 
Sally!) 

E. I mean five and a half yards equal one rod. 

T. Well, you might do it that way too. Now be careful. 
(Stage directions.) What is it we're to do first, Henry? 

E. Multiply. {Henry has now arrived at the point at which 
he started.) 

T. Multiply what? Go ahead. {Siphoning the vacuum goes 
on unabated.) 

E. Rods by feet. 

T. Well, how many feet make one rod, Henry? 

E. Sixteen and a half. {Henry is being trained in the puzzle- 
stage of education.) 

T. Well, go on, that's right. 

E. (Referring to paper.) i6}4 x 80 «- 1,320 feet. 

T. Now what must you do with the feet? {Pay attention, 
class!) 

E. Change them to lots. 

T. And how would you do that? Be careful! Now think! 

E. Divide by sixty. 

T. That's right, go ahead. 

E. 1,320 ■*■ 60 = 22. 

J. Twenty-two what? 



176 DIRECTING STUDY 

H. Twenty-two lots. 

T. That's right; how many understand? (They always say 

"yes" to that. A more or less interested and unanimous 

assent.*) 

Could a more efficient system in the training of 
failures be devised? The comedian could make real 
fun for an appreciative audience out of the perform- 
ances of Henry and his teacher. 

A distinguished mathematician has said that "a 
few children are born mentally deficient, but a number 
are gradually made so by the efforts made to train 
their growing faculties." Any boy or girl who, while 
in school, is deprived of the comfort and assurance 
derived from an understanding of the lesson will rapidly 
build up defense reactions. Such a child will soon 
begin to resort to subterfuge if the constant strain 
of having to make good in examinations is not relaxed. 
Note how easy it is to cultivate dishonesty in a pro- 
cedure that exalts in a blind faith the virtues of un- 
digested stores of information. 

The manner in which students react to favorable 
or unfavorable environment, that is, the attitude dis- 
played in meeting new situations, is of far more impor- 
tance as an indication of the general trend of activities 
than an analysis of the intellectual processes. " Success 
in education should be measured by the direction given 
to the emotional currents, the growth of volitional 
activity, and the awakening of a few abiding interests." 

Obvious Need of Redefinition and Re-evaluation of 
Education. — Honest workmen, creative educators, not 
captious critics, are endeavoring to re-evaluate and re- 

* Mead, Cyrus D., Habits of Work, Ed. Ad. and Sup., vol. VI, No. i, 
P- 45- 



THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE WORK SPIRIT 177 

define education. In their eagerness to institute pro- 
cedures that will obviate such futile performances as 
Henry and his school exhibit it would be a marvel if 
they did not dramatize inter-dependent relations and 
initiative somewhat beyond our ability to realize in 
the immediate future. The critic of new departures 
would do well if he devoted his energy to a defense of 
traditional educational practices. 

Waste in Recitation System. — It does not require an 
extraordinary sense of humor to appreciate the omis- 
sions in the recitation just cited. Incidentally one 
may well reflect upon the value of measuring the in- 
crements of "knowledge," or dabs of information, or 
intellectual capacity derived from such a ridiculous 
system. Here are some thirty boys and girls, twelve 
to fifteen years of age, dedicated to an education by 
their fond parents. This dialogue or interview is 
carried on between Henry and his teacher. Twenty- 
nine pupils are expected to pay attention during the 
farce. They must be in order while Henry and their 
teacher are doing this wasteful thing. If they are 
passive enough, dead enough, no cases of discipline arise. 

The lava of "pedaguese" flows on in a never-ending 
stream with devices and "methods" calculated to as- 
sist teachers in negotiating the lesson-hearing school. 
"How many understand?" asks the teacher at the 
end of such light comedy as that above. They always 
say "Yes" to that. The job of keeping twenty-nine 
de-magnetized units and Henry in perfect form is stag- 
gering in itself. It is no easy trade to keep the belts 
off thirty human generators. These boys and girls 
are placed in straight rows in the mourners' benches 
and they are not to get out of them without specific 



178 DIRECTING STUDY 

permission. Between the lines admonitions and ex- 
hortations are directed at Dick, Tom, and Harry, who 
find it rather difficult to be in order and give undivided 
attention to the ^citation. Not only is Henry bound 
in his intellectual swaddling-clothes by a formalism 
and a routine of analysis with a Jerky, halting, minc- 
ing question-and-answer method, interpersed with 
stage directions, but the other victims are held in re- 
straint by repressive measures, dawdling away their 
time and energy. The whole performance is lacking 
in every essential condition for creative thinking. 

The waste of time and energy of pupils sitting pas- 
sively in our classrooms will never be adequately mea- 
sured. The little fellow in the 2d grade, on being asked 
what he was doing in school, aptly replied that he was 
just waiting for the rest of his classmates to catch up. 
The gradual reduction of capable boys and girls to the 
monotonous pattern of John Smith is a process ad- 
mirably designed to encourage an immense amount 
of intellectual loafing in all grades of our educational 
system. The hope of escape through classification of 
ability is meagre. The real difficulty inheres in the 
presuppositions of regimental uniformity and the cur- 
rent emphasis upon the consumption of ready-made 
"knowledge." This unfortunate situation is an in- 
evitable result of the perpetuation of the lesson-hear- 
ing school. The upper emerging half or third of the 
class spends an inordinate amount of time and nega- 
tive energy in waiting for the rest of the class to catch 
up. Many a clever fellow cultivates his initiative in 
devising ways of amusing his classmates in these mo- 
notonous intervals. 

According to Henry Adams, nothing in education 



THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE WORK SPIRIT 179 

is so astounding as the amount of ignorance it accu- 
mulates in the form of inert facts. And Mr. Woellner 
depicts a vivid, if mournful, picture when he says: 
"The old-time education considers the mind a grave- 
yard, spacious and receptive. Data, events, knowledge 
of all kinds are so often dead matter ready for inter- 
ment; the lesson a burial rite, a tedious ordeal, but 
very necessary in respectable places; the teacher, the 
only live entity in the analysis, a combination of divine 
and undertaker; the examination a sort of resurrec- 
tion morning where, true to form, few resurrect." * 

If the class has been assigned a set lesson of 10 prob- 
lems, 5 pages of history, 70 lines of Paradise Lost, the 
conjugation of amo, and if the lesson has really been 
mastered, then there is little to be gained in the recita- 
tion of it. But Henry had not solved the problem. 
It is probable that he answered the first question 
by vague guessing. Much of what he says suggests 
the puzzle stage of education. He finally muddled 
through, mostly muddle. The process suggests si- 
phoning a vacuum. Henry's train-despatcher seemed 
to have been off duty; little if anything got over the 
loop; most of his responses did not agitate anything 
above the medulla oblongata. As for Mary, John, 
Susan, etc., who were observers, sitting on the bleachers, 
as it were, they had solved the problem. They might 
have been amused; some teachers do make the dia- 
logue rather entertaining. They certainly could not 
derive any permanent value from listening. Their 
time is usually wasted, perhaps worse than wasted, 
in the fact that the system of passivity makes it im- 

* A New Approach to American History, a report of the Executive 
Committee of the American Citizenship League. 



180 DIRECTING STUDY 

possible for the teacher to stimulate and guide mental 
life in a worth-while realization. 

Futility of Devices and Methods. — The exponents of 
the recitation system and the defenders (satis sapienti) 
of the status quo have invented all sorts of devices and 
methods designed to counteract any such tendencies 
as indicated above. While operating on, Henry, the 
methodologist says, you should call on Tom to answer 
a question; in other words, make every pupil feel re- 
sponsible by a promiscuous calling for fragmentary 
bits of the recitation. The successful teacher, they 
say, uses good strategy, propounds the question before 
designating the pupil, makes sure of returning to the 
pupil who fails, with the same question, calls on all 
the pupils to recite (when the supervisor or inspector 
happens round), etc. A clever teacher can produce a 
spectacular performance and make it appear that 
there is much learning and profound interest. A vast 
amount of information can be acquired and exhibited, 
for the time being at least. The pupils may take on 
all the symptoms of life, and still, with all the stir of 
enthusiasm, fail to incorporate the spirit of the sub- 
ject into their lives. Conventional and artificial stand- 
ards can be met; but they can be met very frequently 
without real thinking, without training of initiative, 
without deliberate provision for creativeness. An 
education based wholly upon assimilation and repro- 
duction can hardly be defended any longer. 

The Pupil a Reacting Agent, not a Recipient. — 
Parenthetically, it may be urged that the trend of this 
discussion is toward securing and establishing the work 
spirit in the classroom. Whatever contributes to the 
development of that ideal is accepted as an encourag- 



THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE WORK SPIRIT 181 

ing tendency. The ideal of directing study needs con- 
stantly to be protected against the misprision of its 
critics. With the work spirit established it will be 
relatively easy to pass from the ideal of the pupil as 
a recipient to the pupil as a reacting agent. Hence, 
those who are earnestly striving to bring about a more 
active participation of all the members of a class in 
the recitation system are assisting in the development 
of a procedure which may soon become a sane and 
productive departure under some such ideal as the 
laboratory or problem level of teaching. 

New Attitude toward Discipline (Scholarship). — 
Above all, what is now demanded is the new teacher 
who will prefer to leave facts and events and persons 
to tell their own story, cunningly setting them in such 
light that the indicative of what is and of what has 
been shall be translated into the imperative of what 
ought to be. Any accredited scholarship must be 
recreated by the teacher in a system of reacting partner- 
ships in which the pupils sit in the game, so to speak, 
and move because their partner, the teacher, moves in 
a real, human pedagogical chess game. 

The old school which recognized as training and 
discipline the ability to stare, ox-like, a disagreeable, 
uninteresting, unintelligible thing, a task, out of coun- 
tenance is gone. The new school believes in training 
and discipline that come from the pupil's effort to 
follow up from premise to conclusion something which 
mightily interests him because of its recognized and 
worthy purpose. Formal and systematic and dog- 
matic education that fails to arouse the student to 
self-activity, that fails to challenge to a combat of 
ideas, stifles the mind. The recitation of things learned 



182 DIRECTING STUDY 

without new adaptations and applications kills mental 
power. If thought merely copies an existing pattern 
there is no hope of its becoming free. There is prac- 
tically no opportunity for the cross-fertilization of ideas 
in the conventional recitation and lecture systems of in- 
struction. 

" Plausible " Learning and Spinal-Cord " Educa- 
tion." — The "squeaks" of youngsters and "howlers" 
of students, their delightfully stupid answers, furnish 
a measure of recreation, and sometimes suggest pos- 
sibilities of originality and creativeness. 

Mabel, with a bustle of busy aimlessness, just say- 
ing everything and everything, addresses herself to the 
solution of the exercise: 

"If 20 pigs cost $100, what will one pig cost?" 

Without thinking of prohibitive prices she pro- 
ceeds: 

"If 20 pigs cost $100, one pig will cost 20 X $100, 
or $2,000; for 20 pigs are 20 times one pig." 

With a courtesy Mabel awaits the pedagogical bene- 
diction. 

Only in the schoolroom are pigs bought and sold 
at such soaring prices. If Mabel's teacher frowns, 
uttering the legend, "Why, Mabel! Don't you know 
you must divide in a problem like this?" Mabel, 
with equal facility and self-complacency, arrives at 
the "correct" answer by bolting it by the division 
route. 

The disquieting conclusion is inescapable: a correct 
answer is by no means valid evidence of thinking. 
The college student may be included. It is perfectly 
possible to go over a kind of ritual in a course and 
escape thinking entirely. Don't think that just because 



THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE WORK SPIRIT 183 

a student answers correctly a question which you have 
asked him that he knows the correct answer. 

The classical example of "taking 'em as they come" 
is credited to Doctor Ramsey, University of Edinburgh. 

Dr. R. Bill, stand up. Read the Latin. (Scan it.) 
Bill. Exegi monumentum aere perennium. 
Dr. R. Now you may translate.* 

Bill. I have eaten a monument more lasting than brass. 
Dr. R. Well, then, for Heaven's sake, Bill, sit down and digest 
it. 

There was a rule in a certain text-book on grammar 
which read as follows: "A preposition is not a good 
word to end a sentence with." For several winters in 
the old country school the writer and his teachers made 
faithful use of this caution rule in correcting faulty 
usage of prepositions. This, too, raises a doubt about 
correct verbalisms. The pupil may repeat with great 
facility and brazen confidence: "Quantities equal to 
the same quantity or equal quantities are equal to 
each other," ad infinitum, and yet be impervious to 
the significance of what is repeated. One may learn 
150 rules of diction and still be unable to write a series 
of co-ordinated sentences with any degree of originality 
or mechanical correctness.! 

* Bill, by due diligence, had pursued his lexicon to the extent of find- 
ing Mo. He noted the first of a score or more of meanings to be to eat. 
A very free translation of the line is: "I have builded myself a monu- 
ment more lasting than bronze." Bill, however, allowed the first mean- 
ing, to eat, to monopolize his attention without regard to the meaning 
of the line as a whole 

t Following is a part of a letter written by a ioth-grade boy. Not 
a word was said to him in solicitation of such an appraisal of his school, 
a large city high school in the Far West. 

"I got a F + on my Oral English because I was late with one of my 



134 DIRECTING STUDY 

Formal Methods. — Another type of entertainment, 
a bit more hopeful, is illustrated in a complex problem 
of discipline (management), instruction, supervision, 
and general procedure. The lesson was assigned, three 
pages of definitions and illustrations in the text on 
metre. With the more or less broken rhythmic per- 
formance consisting of directions to stand up, recite, 
sit down, the hour was drawing to a close, when Mike 
was sent to the office because of improper conduct. 
The recitation had been going on somewhat after this 
fashion: 

T. Mary, what is an iambic verse? 

M. An iambic verse is a verse that has in it iambic feet. 

(Mary is a bright pupil; she reflects, mirror-like, the printed 

page perfectly.) 
T. Correct. 

T. Mike, what is a trochaic verse? 
M . Don't know. 

speeches and she took off a hundred per cent. I did very poor in my 
English. I received a F — . I don't get anything out of the English 
class whatever. The teacher will turn to some unknown poem and have 
a boy read it (about 20 lines, part of a poem). He reads it and then she 
will say, 'You didn't read it very well, did you?' And then the boy is 
asked to read it again. He reads it again and maybe a third time. Then 
several people in the class will read it. Then she starts to tell what each 
means, using a lot of big words which mean nothing and half the class 
don't get anything out of it. The teacher explains about 10 lines of it 
and then the bell rings. So there is one period wasted. 

"Then the next day she finishes explaining the rest of the 20 lines, 
and does a lot of talking and the bell rings again and the second day is 
wasted. The next day we are supposed to memorize 4 lines of it. (As 
we did in the last poem.) After the day or period is spent reciting the 
poem by heart (the 4 lines), she asks us to memorize the rest of it. And 
the fourth day is wasted. 

"After a week of this the class gets pretty tired of it, and this same 
thing has been repeated. We have also written several themes of 500 
to 800 words for English. But in spite of it all I will work hard during 
the next report period and pass with a G +." 



THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE WORK SPIRIT 185 

T. Well, why didn't you study your lesson? Sit down. 
Now don't dismiss it from your mind! Susan, you may 
answer. 

S. I don't know what the question is. 

J. Why don't you pay attention! What is a trochaic 
verse ? 

S. A trochaic verse is one, is one — (and a touching moist 
scene is enacted). 

T. That will do. Too bad, Susan. 

T. Jim, stand up. What is a pentameter verse ? 

/. A pentameter verse is a verse that has in it pentameter 
feet. 

T. Correct. You did surprisingly well. I am amazed.* 

T. Now, Mike. (The book on "methods" says return to 
the victim.) What is a trochaic verse? 

M. A verse that — uh-uh-uh. 

T. Sit down, and pay attention. (Mike begins to scribble 
on a piece of paper. He is commanded sternly to stop 
it, and is ordered to manifest due respect for his teacher. 
It happens again and Mike is directed to find the prin- 
cipal's office instanter.) 

Prin. What's the trouble, Mike? 

M. Nothing. 

P. Where did you come from, Mike? 

M. English. 

P. What were you doing up there ? What was your lesson 
about ? 

M. Oh, something about feet; a lot of definitions. 

P. Did you prepare the lesson, Mike? 

M. No. (The ethical exhortation is omitted. Mike was ex- 
posed to an extended dissertation on the value of indus- 
try, etc.) 

P. Well, Mike ! To be specific, what were you doing at the 
time you were sent out of the room? 

* Jim is quite a wag. He rarely indulges in the habit of study. He 
is quick at generalizing. He soon caught on to the author's method of 
building definitions. He saw that an X verse was a verse that has in it 
X feet. When his teacher selected him out for special recognition he 
was fully equipped. For X he simply substituted pentameter. He could 
have substituted jack-rabbit with equal expertness. 



186 DIRECTING STUDY 

, M. Writing something. 
P. A note to your chum? 
M. No, it wasn't that. 
P. Would you read it to me? 
M. (After gaining his composure, he reads:) 

There's metre in accent. 

There's metre in tone. 

But the best of all metres 

Is to metre alone. 
(At least a sign of originality in the use of metre in the last line !) 
P. Now I shall have to punish you. If you don't get to 

work and write a few more stanzas you will have to see me 

at four o'clock. 

Without moralizing, it seems pertinent to remark 
that, actually, the only pupil in that class who was 
even making an effort to produce, to create, or to ap- 
ply anything was deleted from the group. The dis- 
cipline of the room had to be maintained. To metre 
alone suggests the proposition that the pupil should 
become the educative unit. Then it would be clear 
that our task is to co-ordinate and unify our ideals, 
principles, and organizing X's, through a productive 
sharing of experiences in a discussion procedure where 
publicity of results may be made a temptation to ex- 
cellence, and where emphasis is placed upon good work. 

A Procedure for the Release of Potentiality. — A 
teacher of the new day began the new challenge by 
reading some ballads. He tapped on the desk and read 
to the rhythm of a galloping horse. His pupils got 
into the rhythmic swing and began tapping their feet 
on the floor. He said: "Good! Come on all of you 
and keep time, tapping it lightly on the floor." He 
read several selections. 

Then he remarked: " If you really enjoy this read- 



THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE WORK SPIRIT 187 

ing, come to the desk and find a ballad that you would 
like to read." He had brought to the class an assort- 
ment of books for the occasion. Before the hour was 
up the class was reading in a half-dozen groups, a leader 
in each one taking responsibility for the order of read- 
ing. 

The next day this teacher said: "Suppose we write 
some ballads ourselves." They did so. Thirty pupils 
in that class actually produced readable ballads. Even 
the poorest one did not need to be expurgated to make 
it decent. Here is one of the three best, written by 
Eleanor, thirteen years of age, in a cjth-grade English 
class: 

YE WOEFUL BALLAD OF FAIR ISABEL 

Fair Isabel of Rockloyal 
At her window stood alone, 
Gazing the way her lover rode 
When he to the wars was gone. 

Her maids came in and sang to her, 
But she dreamed the livelong day. 
Suitors came and courted her, 
But she turned them all away. 

He had kissed her there and left her 
With a promise to be true 
And as he had loved, so e'en had she, 
And so she had promised too. 

One day as she sat in her chamber 
She heard a step in the hall. 
Her hopes arose for her lover, 
But 'twas a herald gaunt and tall. 

"Hark ye," he cried, "I come from far 
Bringing ye news from the wars. 



188 DIRECTING STUDY 

Your lover lies slain on the battle-field 
Across the English moors." 

Her lips grew white and her cheek turned pale 
In a deadly swoon she fell. 
Naught that was done could restore her 
And of grief died the fair Isabel. 

Eleanor's mother related her experience the day- 
after. She remarked that Eleanor went to the study- 
table and began tapping her pencil. When asked what 
it meant Eleanor replied that she was trying to write 
a ballad. The mother thought it was a foolish assign- 
ment, quite beyond the capacity of her elder daughter, 
then in college. Eleanor apprised her mother that 
the teacher had said: "Would you like to write some 
ballads?" That made a difference. In about forty 
minutes after starting to write, Eleanor read the bal- 
lad as it appears above to her mother. It may be worth 
while to talk about the particular metre and perhaps 
use the conventional terms after the pupils have 
worked into some creative self-expression. Suffice it 
to say that the bare bones of definitions will assist no 
one in writing anything. 

Of course Eleanor's poem was the best in this class. 
But the doubting Thomases should be reminded that 
there is no reason why the standard of achievement 
and qualities attained by a few individuals should 
not become the average of the class. That is the 
meaning of evolution: the individual exception becomes 
the type of the race. Effective freedom is the ideal 
toward which we should be striving. Only an infini- 
tesimal fraction of human power has been applied to 
the task of development. All that is hoped for in the 



THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE WORK SPIRIT 189 

full release of every wholesome potentiality will not 
come in a day; the process has been choked by self- 
created obstacles and repressive measures of external 
disciplines in home and school, and by far the larger 
proportion of the progressive effort has been spent in 
overcoming them. Huge sources of power await lib- 
eration in every child. The real problem is the de- 
velopment of a technic by which creative thinking 
may be achieved. 

Converting a Formal Recitation Procedure into a 
Directed Challenge and a Co-operative Movement. — 
Let us take now an illustration of the formal recita- 
tion mode under collective teaching and convert it 
into a procedure a little bit more hopeful and more 
productive than the usual question-and-answer meth- 
od. The class was a first-year Latin section. The 
teacher began in the usual manner, calling on pupils 
to rise singly, give principal parts of a verb, sit down, 
next, etc. After ten minutes, disorder began to dis- 
turb the procedure. At this juncture a sympathetic 
educational associate who was present suggested that 
the pupils step to the blackboard. He asked the 
teacher what the objective was in the lesson. After 
some hesitation and confusion it was revealed that it 
was concerned with a review of the principal parts of 
Latin verbs. Very well. The pupils had written their 
names on the board. 

"Now [to the teacher], what are you going to do next 
in this situation ?" It was well done. The pupils were 
asked to write to 10 in a column under their names, 
and then to write as rapidly as possible the principal 
parts of any 10 verbs. In two minutes Jane was finish- 
ing; John was coming along, nip and tuck. Jack over 



190 DIRECTING STUDY 

there, who had been generously reminded in the first 
part of the hour that he ought to study, etc., was about 
to collect enough information out of the corner of his 
eye to write the second one in his column of 10. 

Again, the associate asked the teacher: "What are 
you going to do next in this situation?" And it was 
an interesting move on the new chess-board where 
pupils and teacher were becoming reacting individuals 
in a moving stream. This was the suggestion : "Carry 
on; number on up; go as far as you can." Within 
ten minutes Jane had written the principal parts of 
48 verbs, John 40, and Jack had accumulated data 
for a stab at 3. Other pupils ranged all the way from 
12 to 37. 

Again, "What are you going to do next in this situa- 
tion ? " The next move, and it was the teacher's move, 
was brilliant. It was: "Move one place to the right." 
It happened that Jack was faced up against Jane's 
array of 48 verbs. He was heard to remark: "Gosh! 
What a girl Jane is!" And that makes a difference 
too. The pupils checked any number in which there 
was an error. Albert, in front of Jack's contribution 
of 3 verbs, finished checking at a glance. 

Again, it became the teacher's move. "What are 
you going to do next in this situation?" An excellent 
thing was suggested in having Albert hear Jack pro- 
nounce the principal parts of the verbs in Jane's array. 

The hour was soon over and there was work still 
to be done. The pupils had been told in the checking 
to use their books if they were still in doubt. Already 
the turbulence of doubt and inquiry had appeared. 
Any pupil finding a word in his work incorrectly 
checked entered a vigorous protest. The book became 



THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE WORK SPIRIT 191 

an authority and was used to settle the case in point. 
Some doubtful forms were left for further investiga- 
tion. 

A Basis for a Moral Responsibility in Procedure. — 
How stupid it was to fuss with Jack before the class 
as a whole in a recitation mode ! Think of those pupils 
in the illustration just cited who were able to write 
from 30 to 48 verbs with their principal parts. To 
express it in the Greek idiom, under the old procedure: 
"Having been cut off as to their heads, they died." 
The teacher needed to be emancipated, to get above 
the fragmentary unit of question and answer in terms 
of isolated brute facts, and to see in some perspective 
the large objectives. 

The whole situation was changed. The teacher 
realized that a detailed plan-book was a handicap. 
A log-book in those uncharted seas might be kept with 
profit. This teacher began to grow when she recog- 
nized the significance of putting to herself the ques- 
tion: "What shall I do next in this situation?" This 
question, projected constantly into a progressive series 
of developing situations, fosters a continuous moral 
analysis. It is a dynamic in the development of a 
keen sense of responsibility. 

Teaching and Learning, an Integration of Actions. 
— A suggestive hint comes from the modern concep- 
tion of economics in the matter of buying and selling. 
In the old school these aspects of trade were consid- 
ered as two separate actions. The pernicious effects 
of this old doctrine are felt to-day in the complex and 
agonizing problems of capital and labor. Now, in 
theory at least, it is recognized that it is not a trans- 
action between buyer and seller but rather an inter- 



192 DIRECTING STUDY 

action. My selling is your buying looked at from my 
point of view; your buying is my selling looked at from 
your point of view. So it is in the educative process. 
My teaching is your learning looked at from my angle ; 
your learning is my teaching looked at from your side 
of the shield. Teaching and learning are, in this view, 
the front and reverse sides of the same sterling coin. 
It is not a transaction between two parties, but an 
interaction of mind upon mind. 

The practice of conceiving teaching and learning 
as two separate actions which make the transaction 
by a mechanical addition, and the notion that each 
of these actions can be subjected to a moral evaluation 
in its own right, must be regarded in any social inter- 
pretation of education as a possible source of a whole 
progeny of pernicious mistakes. Just so long as status 
exists, and teacher-mind is contrasted with pupil- 
mind, there can be no fruitful application of the social 
principle to educational practice. Separate these 
functions of teaching and learning, and nobody is re- 
sponsible for results. Really the language is highly 
figurative and still misleading. The teacher who is 
not learning, who is not being rejuvenated in this inter- 
action of social life with his students, is in grave dan- 
ger of becoming a pedagogue and a pedant. 

Indeterminate Character of New Procedure. — It 
will be remembered that the formations in the class 
above were constantly shifting. The new situations, 
the "deeds to be done," cannot be predetermined. 
The nub of the whole matter is that this class was 
converted from a state of passivity to a working group. 
The work spirit was created. There was a wholesome 
contagion of work developed through the interaction 



THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE WORK SPIRIT 193 

of mind upon mind in a spirited challenge. When the 
bell rang it was not a signal for a sigh of relief but an 
expression of surprise that the time was up so soon. 
Every individual became a reacting agent. No upper 
limit was set for any one. The challenge was not 
finished as a job is finished. The dry bones of mini- 
mum-essential content were not being rattled about 
after the pupils were geared up into action. Minimum 
essentials always become maximum necessities, and tend 
to suggest strongly to both pupils and teacher the notion 
that things in education can be completed and set aside 
and practically dismissed from the mind as piece-work 
is finished and checked of in the factory. 

True Sportsmanship in a Co-operative Undertaking. 
■ — The procedure toward which the illustration on the 
principal parts of verbs points is a procedure of re- 
acting partnerships. The teacher actually plays the 
game as one of the players. The exact move cannot 
be predicted in advance of the experiment. 

Even on the chess-board no one commits to memory 
some 33,000 possible formations, and plays the game 
by carrying in cold storage all these possible combina- 
tions and permutations. 

The expert chess-player, playing thirty games simul- 
taneously, does not carry in his memory the positions 
of the pieces on the several boards as he walks around 
in the group from board to board. He sizes up the 
situation at a glance and makes the next move. 

Any art or profession always requires just that sort 
of creative ability. It is perfectly futile to attempt 
to store up in the rag-bag of memory 33,000 possible 
combinations and permutations in which inert chess- 
men may be placed, and then in the game dig down 



194 DIRECTING STUDY 

into this rag-bag of memory and pull out an old movie 
film to be used in the new formation resulting from 
the preceding move of the opposing player. Actually 
a new movie film must be created for the new situation, 
if it is a life situation. The intelligent mind meets a 
fresh difficulty by a creative synthesis, not by a mere 
copy formulated in advance. 

The chessmen have no will of their own. They stay 
put. The boy moves. He is not a lock-step man in 
the making. And in the intellectual game, as well as 
in the chess game, the expert player will not be bent 
on checkmating the learner, the beginner, so much as 
setting up new situations which keep open a gradual, 
progressive experimentation with emphasis on trial 
and success and growth in the direction of successful 
experiment. To be sure, the amateur ought to be check- 
mated, now and again, both to demonstrate expert 
ability and to give pith and point to good sportsman- 
ship. The converse of this proposition may be demon- 
strated with profit. "A sportsman is one who takes 
his chance when he ought, not when he can" and who- 
ever can define sportsmanship can define that which 
animates and differentiates English education. "The 
sportsman shall not aim at the sitting bird nor strike 
the fallen boxer nor quench the smoking flax. True 
sportsmanship sweetens the competition of life, is 
long-suffering in action, and is not puffed up in reminis- 
cence." * 

" The Boy Moved."— The delightful story is related 
of a great thinker who was fond of golf. His difficulty 
was an inability to find the ball or to orient himself 
to the general direction of it in his drive. A fellow 

* Shane Leslie, The End of a Chapter, p. 159. 



THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE WORK SPIRIT 195 

philosopher suggested to him that he ought to sight 
by some object when he took his position for his drive. 
"A good idea," he said. But there was a repetition 
of his old difficulty. He sighted by a single object. 
When asked if he sighted by an object, he replied that 
he did: "I sighted by a boy," said he, "but the boy 
moved," 

The school too generally prepares itself to meet an 
abstract average boy. It is not enough to know the 
boy's name. It is rather difficult to make a state- 
ment of what one really knows about a boy in his nat- 
ural state. The artificial schoolboy can be defined; 
the real boy eludes definition. The fact is we must 
see the boy in novel circumstances in order to discover 
how he behaves. He does not carry, as baggage, an 
assortment of original traits which appear, as such, in 
the processes of his changing, growing life. 

The boy, moving up into the canyon, prospecting 
in geometry, this hour, is a new boy; he is in the 
process of becoming what he otherwise would not be. 
A change is being effected in his life. So it is in every 
part of the curriculum which is actually being incor- 
porated into his thinking. 

This boy, measuring angles, that boy actually pro- 
ducing and creating his own Robinson Crusoe, this 
girl fabricating the ballad or story, that girl pursuing 
the multiplication tables — all such situations are novel, 
no matter how many different individuals have faced 
similar problems or how often the same individual 
has ventured to think the same problem. 

It is a changing world, not a fixed and final world 
in which the individual moves. The teacher needs to 
think of the boy and his first adventure in a new study, 



196 DIRECTING STUDY 

or, for that, any study or any part of it, as constituting 
a new situation demanding a reconstruction of experi- 
ence as the only possible attitude of mind. Any situa- 
tion that can be met without it involves no vital 
difficulty or real problem, and when that is lacking 
for either teacher or pupil, what is done is of no con- 
sequence, and it were even better if it were not done 
at all. The experimental method carries with it a 
tremendous responsibility; without it, the validity 
and value of what is done should be challenged. 

Activity with a Sense of Direction. — In passing, 
therefore, from the primacy of subject-matter, as such, 
and accredited methods, as such, over to the primacy 
of boys and girls at work we must be prepared for ever 
new formations. The general direction must be sensed 
by the teacher. As pupils and teacher advance, or- 
ganized as a real prospecting party, they find them- 
selves at the fork of the road with every new adventure. 
They must choose a way and take the consequences of 
the choice. In a real sense it is the city that determines 
the general direction of the road; the road does not 
determine the direction of the city. With the city in 
mind the building of the road is given a direction. To 
strain the analogy for what it will bear the building 
of the road is never completed. Economy of trans- 
portation requires radical changes in the old road- 
bed. What seemed to be insuperable obstacles in 
pioneer construction are now met with courage and 
determination. The tools and method of modern 
science have made possible improvements surpassing 
the wildest dreams of the early builders. 

Applying the analogy in one direction the slogan 
would be to assimilate in the shortest possible time, 



THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE WORK SPIRIT 197 

with the least effort, the greatest quantity of the most 
important matter. Such is the suggestion of big busi- 
ness — an excellent idea, provided assimilation does not 
become the end of education. Merely to be active in 
building or improving the road under the immediate 
and constant direction of the foreman reduces the 
performance to the level of a job in which artificial 
stimuli must be employed to induce the worker to go 
forward. Or, to put it another way : suppose a person 
had all the facts, and nothing but the facts, what would 
he do with them? 

The city, the ideal, the goal must be an objective 
toward which all are striving, and the humblest worker 
should be given an opportunity to gain an appreciative 
understanding of the co-operative drive toward real 
objectives. 

The pupil, in other words, is not to be carried, with- 
out effort, swiftly over a beaten path toward his rich 
social heritage. Each individual must build for him- 
self his world, and express the values of life through 
the achievement of his personality. He is not com- 
mitted to a world fordone in which his chief task is 
to become adjusted to what is in a world of absolutes, 
but rather to become the responsible agent in dealing 
with a world of changes by directing and controlling 
forces under the driving power of the will to progress. 
This, the will to progress, is more important than the 
will to live. 

Dewey's expressive figure, "At the fork of the road," 
suggests the moral hazard in teaching. What to do 
next, if education begins at the point of crisis, cannot 
be reduced to blue-prints and plan-books. Confronted 
with new situations, responsibility for the exercise of 



198 DIRECTING STUDY 

initiative in choosing some productive next move rests 
definitely upon the teacher — a responsibility, however, 
which may be shared by the pupils. 

Opportunity for Self-Expression in the New and the 
Old Procedure. — Returning to the redirected class, 
wrestling with Latin verbs, all pupils were given full 
opportunity for self-expression. The teacher working 
into a half-dozen major suggestions for some next steps, 
instead of agonizing along with ioo or more choppy 
questions or commands directed at some individual, 
became at once a guide, a consulting expert, a director 
of activities. Each individual had a chance to do his 
best. No one was held back on account of a slower 
one, or one who was duck-backing an education. The 
opportunity was offered, too, for the development of 
partnerships. All sorts of groupings are immediately 
possible in the expansion of the procedure initiated. 

Norman MacMunn, a teacher of French, has very 
pertinently pointed out that the average time given 
to oral expression in the recitation system does not 
exceed one and one-half minutes daily for each pupil. 

The actual loss of speaking-time enjoyed by each boy under 
the old [collective teaching] as compared with the new system 
[partnership teaching] is simply immense. I suppose most 
masters have realized that in a French class of twenty, if they 
themselves speak half of each hour, a boy has only one minute 
and a half in which to express himself ! Is it any wonder that 
even after seven years of exiguous practice he is frequently at a 
loss to frame the simplest sentence? I am surprised that he 
speaks as well as he does, considering that his actual conver- 
sational practice in those seven years has probably amounted 
to something like twenty-four hours.* 

* MacMunn, Norman, A Path to Freedom in the School, p. 38. 



THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE WORK SPIRIT 199 

With thirty pupils and a teacher who talks exces- 
sively it would be difficult to find one minute for each 
pupil. 

Doubtless nine out of ten of us who have studied 
geometry and, incidentally, have thanked God that 
we are done with that, memorized the theorem and in 
the proof reproduced the steps by which some one else 
— the author, the teacher, father, or mother, or fellow 
pupil — had come to his conclusion. For most of us a 
triangle suggests a definition running something like a 
plane surface bounded by three straight lines, accom- 
panied by a survival of a few dim visual patterns de- 
picted some years ago out there on the blackboard or 
in the book, remembered, if at all, as a mere copy. 

The boy who defined his triangle as a thing to think 
with was about to escape intellectual paralysis, and 
actually to gain a functional meaning of his mathe- 
matics. 

A refreshing point of view is gained in working out 
" Education as World Building," * e. g. : 

I study Euclid's geometry. It is simply an occasion for me 
to make my own geometry. / must conceive a point, a line, a 
plane, a solid. J must feel the necessity of regarding the sum 
of the angles of a triangle as two right angles. 

If Shakespeare shares his meaning with us, why do some 
say Hamlet was mad and others that he was not mad? To 
Shakespeare he must have been mad, or not mad, or both to- 
gether, and if we simply take Shakespeare's meaning (or the 
teacher's or some one else's) it must be only one of these that 
we can hold, and Hamlet should mean the same definite per- 
sonality to us that he meant to Shakespeare. There would be 
no room for scholars' quarrels if truth were handed down in that 
way. The far greater service that he has rendered, the service 

* Moore, E; C, What is Education, chap. IV, and particularly p. 131./. 



200 DIRECTING STUDY 

of every artist, inventor, lawgiver, and teacher renders, is just 
the one that my friend renders when he converses with me; 
namely, that of providing materials of experience for me to in- 
terpret. 

The Beginnings of Co-operative Teaching. — So one 

may go on urging the proposition that the pupil must 
learn his French, his English, his science, his history, 
etc., just as he learns to lace his shoes, and that way 
is by lacing his shoes. He grows along the line of suc- 
cessful experiment. It occurred to MacMunn that his 
boys could not learn to speak French by a vicarious 
method. They needed to hear him speak it correctly; 
that is granted without dissenting opinion. But, just 
as pupils in English classes gain practically nothing 
by listening to desultory essays and exhortations on 
correct style, so in a foreign language pupils do not 
learn to speak it if the teacher does all the speaking. 
The suggestion has already been made in the pro- 
cedure discussed in the redirected Latin class that 
productive partnership teaching could be inaugurated 
without having a "Wild West show" or a "bear gar- 
den." Any intelligent person will draw a valid distinc- 
tion between the normal wish to "paddle one's own 
canoe" and a neurotic craving for relief from any form 
of restraint. A joyous contentment in a real, not a 
fictitious, freedom should be diligently sought. The 
development of courage, initiative, originality, whole- 
some self-assertiveness is possible after the "consti- 
tution is adopted." Vital education in a democracy 
finds no insuperable paradox in Authority and Freedom. 
Obviously groupings can be productively worked out 
with the caution that groupings are tentative and 
that a so-called socialized recitation which is not at every 



THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE WORK SPIRIT 201 

stage within the immediate grip of the teacher is an edu- 
cational tragedy. 

Illustrations of procedure in which opportunities are 
offered for partnership teaching have been suggested. 
The application of the conception of emerging leader- 
ships, the recognition of emerging power and capacity 
through gradual and progressive experimentation, will 
enable the new teacher to introduce the sound prin- 
ciples and practices of a shared life. 

Albert was perfectly competent to hear Jack pro- 
nounce the principal parts of the verbs in Jane's con- 
tribution (see page 190). Jane was ready to take re- 
sponsibility with a group of four pupils over in the 
corner of the room to practice with them in giving 
each other the principal parts of verbs. The first acid 
test of a vital class period is the work spirit. The dust 
of industry is a good sign. The teacher is included in 
this test. The practice of setting a uniform task and 
devoting a part of the class period to a uniform study 
of it, to be followed by a recitation of a set lesson, is 
the surest possible method of producing an idle, super- 
vising teacher whose primary business is to perform 
police duty. 

The daily set-lesson assignment must give way to 
the indeterminate, yet very definite, challenge. Let us 
go back to the boy on the farm who was willing to do 
all the work if somebody else would do the chores. 
Give a real, aggressive boy daily assignments in pulling 
little weeds and he will leave the farm, and despise it 
the rest of his days. Give him a fifty-acre realization 
with a full co-operating share in the responsibility for 
its management, a real challenge and an indeterminate 
assignment, and "it's dogged that does it" with a chal- 



202 DIRECTING STUDY 

lenge in which he appreciates the necessity of hard 
work, and, if that boy leaves the farm for profession 
or business, he will always cherish a desire to return 
to it. 

In the one case he must be driven to his chores, 
heckled about his habits of work. It becomes a mo- 
notonous routine, a tiresome repetition.. To be as- 
signed little jobs, daily, kills initiative in the worker. 
There is no vision in isolated, set tasks. In the other 
situation, a man's job makes its appeal to the adoles- 
cent. A challenge does not deal with perpetual rest 
cures. The field is to be ploughed and prepared for 
the crops; the crops are to be cultivated, harvested, 
and marketed. A chain of purposive activities runs 
through it all. There is a linking up in the mind, a 
series of progressive concretes which enter into the 
total achievement. It is the spirit of challenge, the 
dynamic of a big, worth-while realization that appeals 
to youth. 

The daily grind resulting from superimposed tasks 
unrelated to any vital self-appreciating, self-initiating 
purpose is fatal to self-respect, pride, initiative, indus- 
try, resourcefulness. Moreover, artificial rewards and 
external pressures are resorted to in the attempt to 
create interest in the daily assignments. Boys in the 
process of being corrupted have to be paid (bribed) 
by their parents to do the little jobs about the home 
and on the farm. A genuine sharing of the respon- 
sibility for the planning and working out of the large 
enterprises of the home, the farm, the business capti- 
vates the boy's imagination and enhances his self- 
esteem. He is made to feel that he counts and that 
his ideas are valued and appreciated in an honest part- 
nership. 



THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE WORK SPIRIT 203 

Somehow along this route the release of potentialities 
is going to be realized. By starting with the big realiza- 
tion, the challenge, and keeping it focal in the experi- 
ment of bringing up boys on the farm, and elsewhere 
no doubt, the chores will be done; the weeds will be 
uprooted in a new spirit when the emphasis is shifted 
to the values of the crops. This rough analogy should 
not break down entirely when it comes to a looping 
up of facts and dabs of information in a purposeful 
challenge in education. 

A Real Questioning Process. — Much ado has been 
made in recent years over fact questions and thought 
questions. The real issue does not seem to lie in that 
direction, for it makes little difference if the landfall 
has been prearranged. To propound a thought ques- 
tion that does not become the pupil's thought ques- 
tion tends to emphasize the old order in which a trans- 
action, not an interaction, is made. If the question is 
already answered on the printed page it is really not 
a thought question. In reality, the answers precede the 
questions in the prevailing practices in education. To 
get a real question in front of some potential answer 
is a most difficult task; it is a task imposed by the 
scientific method. Usually the book contains the in- 
formation and the conclusions ready-made; the learner 
is required to exercise powers of memory for words 
and phrases and some discrimination in shades of 
meaning. Yet a child in the primary grades before 
reading Robinson Crusoe or being told the story is 
able to create his Robinson Crusoe by skilful ques- 
tioning.* 

* Hall and Hall, The Question as a Factor in Teaching, see Intro, and 
chap. I. 



204 DIRECTING STUDY 

For example: 

Teacher. Once there was a man left on an island all alone. 
How did he get there? 

Pupils. (They will find a way.) 

Teacher. What shall we call our lonely man? (It makes 
no difference what we call him in so far as our thinking is 
concerned. The teacher proposes the name Robinson 
Crusoe, and that suggests a need and a way of socializing 
subject-matter.) 

Teacher. (Later in one of the developing challenges.) One 
day your Robinson Crusoe got sick. What could you do 
in your home, if you were sick, that your Robinson Crusoe 
could not do? What would he do? 

Pupils. (They will work it out.) 

In other words, we are endeavoring to suggest a way 
of getting some question in front of some potential 
answer in situations which stimulate and encourage 
pupils in creative thinking. The material of Defoe's 
Crusoe can be utilized; after the pupil has produced 
his Crusoe in some one of the hypothetical situations 
suggested above, the material of the book on that 
situation might be read or related with profit side by 
side with the child's contribution. The story of Robin- 
son Crusoe furnishes, in a sense, the motif for history. 
The teacher who, in dealing with the narrative of his- 
tory, could cast up now and again situations to which 
the pupil might react in terms of his creativeness would 
soon find a gripping dynamic in the interpretation of 
history. All through the unfolding of the inspiring 
national panorama opportunities arise for stating a 
few salient situations, a few outstanding facts and 
guiding principles which may be utilized in a procedure 
intended to direct and stimulate the pupil to project 



THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE WORK SPIRIT 205 

his judgment in a possible or tentative solution. An 
occasional departure in the Robinson Crusoe method 
would tend to obviate the mechanical practice of im- 
pressing upon the minds of others a slavish copy of 
the doctrine taught and, also, the danger of falling 
into an uncritical absorption of information would be 
counteracted. The teacher who will make the ad- 
venture in the Robinson Crusoe method with any 
child or group of children will "see visions and dream 
dreams" in the land of educational possibilitie 

The entire Chapter XI in Dewey's How We Think, 
dealing with "Empirical and Scientific Thinking," should 
be studied in this connection. What the teacher is 
doing in such procedure is to fabricate a very definite 
organization of circumstances to which the pupils 
respond; or, if the analogy of the chess game is apt, 
the teacher moves and thereby creates a new situation 
which calls for a purposeful response from the other 
players in the game. Scholarship for the teacher is 
actually recreated in the interaction of social life. So 
much is offered as "substance of doctrine," and for 
suggestion as to departure. Not all stories are to be 
handled as this one is here; but by making provision 
for productive, creative questioning in a few instances, 
a distinction will be gained between education in terms 
of telling and absorbing and education in terms of 
creative thinking. 

"Freedom of thought implies, among other things, 
that the teacher of anything from the '3 R's' to theol- 
ogy provokes the originality of his pupil not as a re- 
cipient but as a reacting agent; accepts him as the 
predominant partner in the work of education, and 
aims at a result which shall contain a large contribu- 



206 DIRECTING STUDY 

tion from the free activity of his mind. Under genuine 
freedom nothing can be further from the aim of the 
teacher than to impress upon the minds of others a 
slavish copy of the doctrine taught, even though this 
should happen to be the doctrine of freedom itself" * 

Freedom of thought, therefore, does not mean merely 
that every individual is licensed to address his opin- 
ons to the world in unlimited monologue. Think of 
the lecture system and the recitation system! The 
procedure that employs to some extent the principles 
arising in productive conversation may be the means 
of creating this originality or the means of developing 
a true freedom through the release of personality. In 
this view freedom comes to mean capacity — real power 
coupled with responsibility. Through a system of 
reacting partnerships may we not expect the develop- 
ment of an individual who can really think ? 

"The amount of intellectual activity is enormous; 
but of creativeness, which is the mark of freedom, there 
is remarkably little." 

Possibilities of Problem Method. — Beginning with 
this Robinson Crusoe method a scale may be built 
up, culminating in the method of Agassiz, who, it will 
be recalled, lifted his teaching to a very high, inde- 
pendent project level when he gave young Bigelow 
the triolobite to work on. Without instruction, lec- 
ture, or readings, without a microscope and a book of 
detail and drawing of what he was to see in the micro- 
scope, the student just had to see it and describe it 
himself. Along the scale, particularly in the junior 
and senior high school, co-operative challenges, with- 
out a deadening uniformity, should be emphasized. 

*See L. P. Jacks, Alchemy of Thought. 



THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE WORK SPIRIT 207 

A gradual elaboration of the procedure just illus- 
trated can be developed. Greater attention should be 
given to approximations in teaching mathematics, with 
perhaps no less emphasis on cold figures; much could 
be done in the interpretation of figures when applied 
to the ambiguities of life.* History may be taught 
in vistas; the brute facts may be looped up in social 
problems having, at least, a vital connection with the 
life of to-day. 

We have now come to terms with pragmatism and 
creative evolution, and we see that to study botany 
means that the student is to become a botanizing in- 
dividual; he is not to assimilate what specialists have 
to say about botany and learn merely to recite it with 
a lip-service to knowledge. 

In all this it is well to keep an unclouded perspective 
of the scientific method, the general theory of which 
is applied by the artist and the sculptor, as well as by 
the modern experimental scientist. First there must 
be a problem for solution, a question to be thought 
about. Always there must be a way of thinking; an 
hypothesis is simply a way of redefining the problem. f 
The facts that seem to bear upon the problem or ques- 
tion must be examined in a process of thinking; as 
they are examined the hypothesis itself is constantly 
redefined. 

The circle is a function of the radius; the radius 
does not stand in a causal relation to the circle. The 
weight is a function of the fulcrum. It is only in 
the support of the claims of status and erudition that 
brute facts, mere information, could have significance. 

* See Kenneth Richmond, Education for Liberty, p. 70. 
f Moore, E. C, What Is Education, pp. 202 and 245/. 



208 DIRECTING STUDY 

Words or language must be conceived as a function 
of abstraction, if their true dynamic significance is to 
be appreciated. A barren fact, isolated from all or- 
ganizing principles, problems, or questions, would be 
an anachronism in any interpretation of education 
vitally directed toward creative intelligence. 

An infinite number of bonds can be built up in the 
lower nervous centres capable of handling simple cases 
of stereotyped situations and responses. 7X9 and 
63; Declaration of Independence and 1776 — literally 
thousands of these bonds can be tied up by a direct 
mechanical method in a deliberate programme of 
schooling. 

An unintelligent mind can be trained to an astonish- 
ing degree of efficiency in the reproduction of correct 
answers to stereotyped questions. The question in 
this usage is nothing more than a repetition of some 
code intended to produce a situation to which there 
is a hand-me-down response. 

Our critics will immediately urge the absolute neces- 
sity of acquiring facts and information, as such, and 
will enter into an elaborate defense of systems and 
methods calculated to free "the lady who is the genius 
of our tongue." And yet with all these earnest striv- 
ings after results and standards one of the most com- 
mon indictments teachers make in any administrative 
unit or course is the indictment lodged against the 
educators in the preceding administrative unit or 
course to the effect that the "students don't know 
anything." 

Complete statistics which would tell us how many of all the 
pupils who study Latin, algebra, and geometry fail to master 
them do not exist. But we know that a large percentage of the 



THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE WORK SPIRIT 209 

better students of these subjects try the college-entrance ex- 
aminations, and that for these examinations many receive spe- 
cial drill in addition to regular teaching. Now in the examina- 
tion held by the College Entrance Board in 1915, 76.6 per cent 
of the candidates failed to make even a mark of 60 in Cicero; 
75 per cent failed to make a mark of 60 per cent in the first six 
books of Virgil, every line of which they had presumably re- 
read; 69.7 per cent of those examined from quadratics on failed 
to make as much as 60 per cent; 42.4 per cent failed to make 
60 per cent in plane geometry. What would the record be if 
all who studied these subjects were thus examined by an im- 
partial outside body?* 

This quotation from "The Modern School" is mis- 
leading in the fact that only three subjects are selected. 
The results in other subjects of secondary education 
are just as illuminating. Furthermore, an investiga- 
tion of the four years of collegiate training beyond the 
high school might disclose results quite as interesting. 

The general method of assimilation under the lec- 
ture system is ordinarily a continuation of the recita- 
tion process. The main emphasis throughout these 
eight years is assimilation and reproduction of informa- 
tion and conclusions of others. The attitude toward 
the printed page throughout this period is essentially 
the same; the primary emphasis is assimilation of 
subject-matter. This is not true in the modern ten- 
dency and practice in the teaching of geometry, for 
example. There has come about in the past three 
decades a shift of emphasis, in that theorems and 
propositions with elaborate proofs are not memorized 
and recited as formerly, but theorems and propositions 
with a few hints for proof are now being used as tools 

* Flexner, The Modern School, p. 6. See also an article by the same 
author in the Atlantic Monthly, April, 191 7. 



210 DIRECTING STUDY 

in the solution of original exercises. The main em- 
phasis is being transferred to the exercises. Other 
subjects in the curriculum are beginning to be ap- 
proached in a similar manner. 

A prominent college professor of history became 
sceptical about his lecture method and assignment of 
readings. He concluded to equip his classroom with 
books and other materials and have his students re- 
port there in groups of fifty for laboratory study and 
direction. He worked out a plan of directing study 
for college freshmen and sophomores. He knew with- 
in two or three weeks after the opening of the semester 
something definite and fruitful about the habits of 
study and working powers of his students. The lec- 
tures were continued, but they became at once ma- 
terial to be worked up by the students in the solution 
of problems in the study of which the professor of his- 
tory took an active part in directing the work of the 
laboratory. For this college professor open season 
for condemning the high school was closed. 

The argument for a productive form of co-operative 
learning with the emphasis deliberately placed upon 
power to think does not telescope the significance of 
information and accredited scholarship. In fact, the 
plea is for a rational use of data and a rational de- 
pendence upon authority. By a looping up of facts 
and information in a driving, purposeful, thought- 
provoking problem, question, challenge, or project it 
is maintained that an infinitely greater amount of 
accredited information will stick to the intellectual 
ribs of our students. The main emphasis is not, how- 
ever, on capacity to accumulate and reproduce ready- 
made knowledge and accepted conclusions. 



THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE WORK SPIRIT 211 

Recitation Subordinated to a Forward Drive. — The 

effect of developing a class period in which the domi- 
nant idea is that every pupil shall be at work is alto- 
gether wholesome. The longer class period of sixty-five 
to seventy-five minutes can be justified under the 
laboratory procedure. Recitation, simply as an end 
in itself, is reduced to a minimum. The pupil engaged 
in the passive art of listening and paying attention is 
not found in the new school. The capacity to recite 
the conclusions of another or of a book is clearly sub- 
ordinated to a demonstrated ability to use these ready- 
made conclusions and all sorts of facts in attacking a 
problem, topic, question, experiment. 

It becomes infinitely more important for the new 
teacher to see that problems are properly raised than 
to hear lessons "said." The programme of directing 
study enables each pupil to go forward with his prob- 
lem at his own best rate. The interests of the class, 
as a working group, are unified and co-ordinated 
through discussion and by means of common organiz- 
ing principles which constitute the ways of conceiving 
or thinking the problem or challenge. Work, intel- 
ligently begun in the class period, may be rationally 
continued out of class. The teacher is concerned not 
only with these common organizing cores of a given 
course, but also with the thinking and tangible prog- 
ress of each pupil. Class discussion is a form of activity 
toward which the movement of a given topic or principle 
should tend ; it may be made productive after pupils have 
worked into a problem or challenge. 

Eliminating Waste in Recitation. — The disposition 
to receive an education is no doubt cultivated through 
excessive explanation, through the presentation of 



212 DIRECTING STUDY 

finished and complete copies of thought, and by a 
passive and uncritical acceptance of the moving-picture 
variety of instruction. The finished demonstration of 
a problem in geometry or a detailed discussion of an 
experiment in chemistry has little value for the stu- 
dent who has made no effort to master the problem 
or experiment. The practice of assigning the next ten 
exercises in the book as a set lesson to be studied out 
of class, and then on the following day writing the 
solutions on the board and using class time in saying 
them over from the board, is a practice having little 
value for the pupil who does not understand what it 
is all about, and probably no value for the pupils who 
do understand and who have diligently prepared their 
lessons. 

After working into the challenge it is desirable and 
profitable to have the whole class participate as some 
one presents a good demonstration, reads a good story, 
or executes a bit of fine workmanship. Competition, 
emulation, pride are given a dominant emphasis 
through judicious praise and publicity of results. 

It is an uneconomical use of the class period to re- 
quire the whole class to listen to shoddy, indifferent, 
muddled explanations of some pupils, just as it is a 
sheer waste of the time and energy of pupils to compel 
them to pay collective attention to the performance 
of extracting information from a boy whose mind is 
apparently empty, or who is considered impervious to 
learning, or who for some reason is hors de combat be- 
fore the class. It is maintained that no normally 
constituted individual is destined to continue a failure. 
Any inference here that any such pupil must remain 
a bungling performer is wholly gratuitous. 



THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE WORK SPIRIT 213 

Summarizing Statement. — Two major considerations 
are beginning to emerge in our discussion. The first 
is a partial socialization of procedure in which certain J 
informal arrangements are made from time to time I 
for a mutual sharing of interest, co-operative learning, / 
various forms of mutual teaching and group work, | 
The second relates to a functional interpretation of 
subject-matter; and the aim is to substitute for the 
rigid set-lesson assignment with its dominant emphasis 
upon regimental uniformity the indeterminate chal- 
lenge lifted to the problem level or case method of teach- 
ing. Both of these aspects of directing study, as inter- 
preted in this discussion, are tied up in a deeper unity 
suggested in the view that the class period shall be 
converted into a work period in which the pupil passes 
unequivocally from a recipient or spectator to a reacting, 
participating agent. 



CHAPTER VI 
APPLICATION OF THE SOCIAL PRINCIPLE 

Unreliability of External Criteria of Supervised 
Study. — In making explicit and deliberate use of the 
social principle in the development of procedures the 
formalist will look in vain for external and arbitrary 
patterns by which to carry on the activities of the class. 
Just what are the inescapable earmarks of supervised 
study? The insistent demand is to explain the ma- 
chinery. Device-minded teachers and supervisors 
may be expected to look for some stable and persistent 
signs by which to know that whatever bears the stamp 
of supervised study will be that and nothing more. The 
mind that operates with its x plus y equals z, in a fixed 
algebraic world, will demand a precise x and a definite 
y; for it is only by having fixed external truth that 
such a mind finds security. 

So we have the superficial reform of a "socialized 
recitation" with some tangible machinery of self-gov- 
ernment, a pupil presiding and calling for recitations 
or some other sign of pupil responsibility. Or again, 
we find some school naming what it does supervised 
study, and receiving advertising that what is named it 
is it, when the only tangible evidence of a supervised- 
study procedure is a division of the class period into 
two equal parts, one-half of which is devoted to the 
study of the lesson preparatory to a formal recitation 
of it. During the so-called supervised-study period 

214 



THE SOCIAL PRINCIPLE 215 

the business of the teacher may be exactly described. 
It may be that the teacher occupies the "furtive pul- 
pit," and from that commanding position sees to it 
that no pupil is out of order externally. Or there may 
be a consistent type of activity, going from pupil to 
pupil rendering such assistance as he may need during 
that part of the hour which is designated supervised 
study. Other formal and stereotyped modes of ac- 
tivity might be mentioned. It is doubtful, however, 
if any real freedom in teaching can be developed by 
attempting to formalize supervised study. An atti- 
tude of mind, a disposition to experiment and to take 
full responsibility for the adventure, a realization of 
the possibilities of a stimulating intellectual game, 
and a fearless application of our modern educational 
philosophy and technic would tend to undercut didactic 
methods. Where there is freedom to experiment there 
is hope to improve. 

Productive Activity. — The surest criterion of a pro- 
ductive class period, call it "supervised study," "so- 
cialized recitation," "co-operative learning," or what 
not, is the work spirit. That classroom exhibits waste 
and falls short under this criterion just to the extent 
that any member or members of that group, teacher 
included, become passive recipients or mere observers. 
The most active kind of intellectual work may be silent 
reflection. The hum of industry is a figure of speech. 
We should be guarded in our appraisal of activity. 
There is the noise of industry and also the noise of 
loose-running unproductive machines. 

Busy working pupils have no time for the machinery 
of self-management. They may be brought up to a 
level of activity in which they would be too proud of 



216 DIRECTING STUDY 

their capacity to work in complete freedom to care for 
the "laws" that imply distrust of themselves. As one 
chap expressed it: "It's folly to waste time in talking 
about what we ought to do instead of doing it." . If 
in our maturer forms of associated life we need to recog- 
nize and appreciate alternate leaderships, then the high 
school should lay the foundation for intelligent action 
and initiate practices that will develop a genius for 
this high type of co-operation. It is not essential that 
the individual shall become expert in the line of his 
specialist. 

All machinery of control, like the scaffolding in the 
building, should be used for a purpose beyond itself. 
The majesty of plan and precision appeals to the spec- 
tator. System is necessary; but it must be subordi- 
nated to the life which it is designed to serve. System 
must be installed underground and provision made for 
connecting with it, when we desire to replenish and 
rejuvenate life, by tapping the life-giving elements 
flowing through the system. 

// is not difficult to find teachers who have so much 
discipline that they have no order at all. Pupils are 
quick to recognize and appreciate expert and artistic 
leadership. The classroom activities built upon the 
principles of an associated life will not be lacking in 
opportunities for demonstrated merit in the exercise 
of authority and guidance. There can be an enormous 
waste of time and energy in playing with the machinery 
and formalism of self-government. This criticism is 
not directed against the practice of having, for exam- 
ple, a pupil chairman; that procedure may prove highly 
beneficial under certain conditions. The objection is, 
rather, that any such external marks should be re- 



THE SOCIAL PRINCIPLE 217 

garded as essential characteristics of a productive 
type of directing study. 

Self-Governing Capacity of Pupils. — And yet, one 
must be hopelessly damned with a provincial academic 
mind, one must be a confirmed pessimist, or an uncom- 
promising absolutist, if one fails to appreciate the possi- 
bilities in boys and girls for responsible self-guidance 
and initiative in carrying forward the legitimate work 
of the school. It is a strange philosophy supporting 
the belief and the practice that human beings may be 
subjected for a considerable time to arbitrary author- 
ity, almost to the point of blind acceptance and a 
Prussian docility, and then by some cataclysmic event 
be converted into self-governing, free-operating, re- 
sponsible personalities. 

A word from an optimistic humanist with a rare 
confidence in our ability to direct life toward an ade- 
quate measure of its possibility is wholesome in this 
connection. "In every child is the stuff of aristocracy. 
By that we mean the high potentiality of childhood 
for uprise or downslide, according to circumstance and 
opportunity. A child's mimetic powers are tuned to 
the pitch prevailing in whatever concert-room it hap- 
pens to be an occupant of. Its creative genius moulds 
its own personality on the model of whatever perform- 
ances happen to be staged there." Canon Barrett's 
story of an East London pageant is a confirmation of 
this healthy doctrine. Aided by a little science, much 
art, and a sympathetic evocation of the creative genius 
that is potent in every normal child, even the slum 
children demonstrated that they could "rise and awake 
to the call of a great heritage as if to the manner 
born." In the pageant it is related that a call came 



218 DIRECTING STUDY 

that all under fourteen should report to the dressing- 
room. In it a voice from one of the youngsters was 
heard: "I can't come because I'm keeping order among 
a dozen kings and queens." 

The success of high-school boys and girls in various 
extra-curricular activities, as well as in outside enter- 
prises in the workaday world, should be a constant 
reminder of the high potentiality of youth. The upper 
limits of achievement in the central activities of the 
school might be extended almost immeasurably if 
something of the same dynamic qualities could be 
injected into them as are so frequently found in these 
other lines of action. Remarkable capacities for 
leadership, industry, initiative, and organization are 
exhibited in athletics, school publications, dramatic 
productions, and in numerous forms of industrial and 
commercial activities. Not infrequently these pupils 
who are making the most satisfactory progress in 
their studies are also engaged in some wage-earning 
occupation or in the extracurricular activities of the 
school. 

It is an obvious fact, also, that the school fails to 
an alarming degree in mobilizing the full energy of the 
pupils. All sorts of misdirected energies are spent in 
dissipating, if not positively harmful, types of adoles- 
cent organizations. The school conceived as a social 
organization in its full significance should aim to pro- 
vide abundant opportunity for the full and complete 
exercise of these powers which find expression in un- 
profitable channels outside of school hours. It may 
be possible to develop a shared life in the administra- 
tion of the curriculum and in every vital aspect of 
procedure by which pupils may find increasing oppor- 



THE SOCIAL PRINCIPLE 219 

tunity for the exercise of initiative, responsibility, and 
their virile powers. The looping up of enthusiasms 
for the legitimate functions of the school is an achieve- 
ment of effective teaching and administration. When 
large numbers of boys and girls are found giving their 
full devotion to these essential matters, with a healthy 
integration of all secondary affairs, there is reason to 
believe that the school is making adequate provision 
for the care of youth. 

The Social View-Point. — In a much deeper and a 
more vital sense it will be recognized that the social 
view-point raises the issue of democracy vs. anti- 
democracy. If the individual is to become a free- 
operating, responsible personality, he must have a 
voice in determining the ideals of work and a share in 
working them out. Only by making adequate pro- 
vision for a shared life will it be possible to make the 
high school a vital social organization — a real prac- 
tising ground of and for intelligent democracy. 

The educator cannot set the pupil off and talk about 
his mental machinery, except in abstracto. Psychol- 
ogizing precedes definite formulations. The boy is 
a geologizing, Latinizing, civicizing, and every other 
kind of an izing being when he is actually incorporating 
the spirit of the studies he is pursuing. There is no 
meaning attaching to the curriculum except in terms 
of the active agents, boys and girls at work — thinking, 
participating, reacting boys and girls. In fact, the 
history of every subject in the curriculum goes right 
back to the social basis; all subjects of the curriculum 
are a series of social problems, eminently practical 
in the wider sense. Pragmatism had been at work in 
education long before it became an ism. Wherever 



220 DIRECTING STUDY 

thinking and doing have been emphasized in educa- 
tional practice this conception has been illustrated. 

The Implications of the School Conceived as a Social 
Organization. — The school, particularly the public 
high school (junior and senior), is best conceived as a 
social organization, a social-service agency soon to be 
operated in the interests of the entire, body of the 
youth of the nation. The high controlling purpose of 
this common school is the building of thinking, socially 
minded, responsible individuals. The social principle 
should be recognized and made the dynamic in every 
phase of school life including the central activity and 
the dominant aim of every healthy, functioning school, 
namely, the intellectual and moral emphasis in the 
classroom. There status has been perpetuated; it must 
give way to a system of reacting partnerships. The 
habit, also, of mothering the curriculum with a pa- 
thetic devotion to the curriculum mores has made it 
difficult to break down the academic fetich, and to 
eradicate the blight of the specialist and the error of 
mere informational instruction. The academic mind 
is invaluable for the research type for truth. 

The curriculum is no longer a sacred thing, a finality 
to be accepted blindly or a body of sanctions to be 
authoritatively administered. In spite of much that is 
haphazard and chaotic in our present practices, the cur- 
riculum is coming to be regarded as an opportunity for 
the exercise of discretion in choosing. Just now certain 
groups of subjects may be regarded as "prescribed 
temptations." No subject of the curriculum should be 
arbitrarily and dogmatically required any longer. This 
is not the occasion to go into an elaborate discussion 
of this thesis; the upshot of the matter in our discussion 



THE SOCIAL PRINCIPLE 221 

is that the pupil and the curriculum should not be 
conceived as two separate ideas to be brought to- 
gether by some temporary compromise or happy me- 
chanical addition of these two, often obstinate, ideas. 
The new cafeteria method of handling the situation 
suggests two desperately significant factors: (i) a 
cafeteria scientifically constructed; (2) an individual 
educated in the intelligent exercise of choice. Gradu- 
ally the pupil should be guided toward a free and 
ordered and responsible selection of courses. By the 
time the pupil enters upon the last two years of the 
secondary school he should be able to elect with a high 
degree of validity and value the studies he desires to 
pursue. He will soon be thrown on his own resources 
in a world in which he must take the responsibility for 
his new adventure. One clear aim of education is to 
assist each individual in becoming an excellent judge 
of his own development of democratic responsibilities. 
In the daily negotiation of the curriculum the term 
directing study is used to describe a procedure in which 
the social principle is constantly applied. As con- 
ceived in this discussion the entire range of activities 
of the school should be developed within a programme 
of participating interests. Values exist only in terms 
of the active and vital self-expression of individuals. 
The pupil who fails to yield to the "temptations to 
excellence" in an adequate school denies himself the 
freedom that comes through work; he may, through 
some spurious relinquishment, fail utterly to incor- 
porate the spirit of the school. Only as the individual 
enters with whole-hearted purposefulness into the 
activities and spirit of the institution, now conceived 
as an instrument in which power is to be exercised and 



222 DIRECTING STUDY 

varied at the discretion of its active members, will it 
be possible to exemplify in him the full significance 
of the social ideal. 

The second criterion of directing study in this thesis 
is the substitution of the social ideal for the exclusive 
knowledge ideal. This shift of emphasis is deemed 
essential in the development of the work, spirit. These 
two principles have already been utilized in carrying 
this discussion thus far through a rather complex maze 
of destructive and constructive criticism. There would 
be no dissenting opinion from the general proposition 
of the desirability of reinstating the day when it is 
good form for a boy to admit that he takes an interest 
in thought, and also of initiating any sound procedure 
that will so broaden the basis of education that the 
term worker shall become a title of honor bestowed 
upon craftsmanship of mind and hand alike. Any 
procedure should be welcomed and indorsed, at least 
tentatively, that carries a hope of developing strong 
temptations to excellence and a disinterested love of 
mastery as opposed to an artificial interest "for the 
sake of the loaves and fishes." 

Informational Instruction and Formalism. — If the 
knowledge ideal is held to be an end in itself and learn- 
ing is carried on for the sake of learning or training 
for the sake of the state, the danger lies in regarding 
the individual as an instrument to be fashioned for 
ulterior ends. The indoctrination of ideas may super- 
sede all conceptions of self-expression. The method 
of imparting information gains pre-eminence in this 
emphasis. Pupils are to be moulded, trained, and in- 
structed. This theory may be developed so far as to 
establish a body of accepted information and tradi- 



THE SOCIAL PRINCIPLE 223 

tion, a Kultur, which is conceived in the nature of 
capital to be loaned to the citizen in the making. Pa- 
triotic and efficient citizens can be developed through 
a national programme of education vigorously con- 
ducted by a body of trained teachers, and yet miss 
the essential matter in educating the individual for 
that freedom which comes through the full and com- 
plete release of his potentialities. The instructional 
ideal lends itself to rigid and formal methods. So 
much subject-matter is to be covered in a given period; 
the theory of imparting information promotes habits 
of orderly presentation. Attention is centred in the 
principles of informational instruction rather than in 
the problems of the learner. A recognition of the so- 
cial principle would disturb the order and sequence, 
the plans and methods set forth in the didactic treat- 
ment of courses of instruction controlled by the in- 
structional ideal. 

A mechanical approach is illustrated in the five 
formal steps — preparation, presentation, comparison, 
generalization, application. The ardent disciple of 
Herbart regards these steps as a general method ap- 
plicable to any subject in any stage of education. The 
attempt is made to harness the lesson in this elaborate 
form on the assumption that such is the order of the 
learner's progress in acquiring information or solving 
problems. For the Herbartian this cut-and-dried 
formula is applicable to all sorts of materials and con- 
ditions. Teachers have been trained to use the five 
steps, and model lessons have been devised to illus- 
trate each step in logical sequence. Perhaps it is fair 
to say that teachers have found in this plan a means 
of gripping their work in a clearer manner than has 



224 DIRECTING STUDY 

been possible by the more direct and flexible methods. 
From the learner's side, however, it seems to be a 
mechanical method, hardly applicable to the pursuit 
of the daily lesson. 

In practice a disproportionate emphasis is given the 
first and second steps. Energy is usually exhausted 
before generalization and application are reached. 
Another defect, in general, is the failure to start with 
a problem which is real to the pupil and in which there 
is projected, at least, a way of thinking. Often the 
first steps are carried out in a formal, external, and 
wholly artificial manner in which the pupil is a passive 
agent merely following directions and accumulating 
information without purposive action. 

In all such formal methods, as the five steps, the 
tendency is to assert the primacy of subject-matter. 
This, in fact, is the crux of the whole matter in placing 
the emphasis on the knowledge ideal. Informational 
instruction occupies the centre of attention. Too 
often real thinking becomes quite incidental to the 
acquisition of ready-made information. 

By shifting the emphasis to the social principle, in- 
formation is utilized in the promotion of thinking in 
terms of some problem or organizing principle. At 
all events, this is the projected ideal. Any pupil work- 
ing forward in a co-operative challenge or on his in- 
dividual topic is not required to wait on certain mat- 
ters of presentation before gripping the significance of 
the general concept of the problem in hand, nor is 
any one held back in a formal march through four 
steps before making the step of application. It may 
be the last step which gives meaning to the whole chal- 
lenge or topic, and, therefore, not a bad step to take first. 



THE SOCIAL PRINCIPLE 225 

To require a class of some thirty pupils to advance 
in the order laid down in formal methods presupposes 
a regimental uniformity that does not exist. The 
working group discloses not a single method but many 
ways of making progress. One pupil, for example, 
glances hastily at some illustrative material in the 
explanation of a new topic (two or three pages in fac- 
toring) and goes forward in the task of solving exer- 
cises, gaining a sense of mastery by "doing the sums," 
referring to the introductory and explanatory matter 
as he finds use for it; another pupil agonizes with pains- 
taking accuracy over the explanatory page, trying to 
understand the step of presentation before advancing 
to the vital situation. On the whole, the procedure 
of the former pupil is to be preferred. The introduc- 
tory chapter of a book is not always written first. 

In working up a comprehensive topic or challenge, 
requiring, say, two weeks or more, some general scheme, 
such as the five formal steps, may be employed to ad- 
vantage. Of course the apprehension of a real problem 
should be included as well as some way (hypothesis) 
of thinking it through. This tentative and projected 
way of handling the problem set for solution is essential 
to any productive thinking. Some general scheme is 
no doubt valid and valuable. In any formulated 
account of developing thought there is or ought to be 
the occurrence of a problem or a puzzling situation 
for the pupil. 

In these accounts "there is the sequence of (i) spe- 
cific facts and events, (ii) ideas and reasonings, and 
(iii) application of their result to specific acts. In 
each case the movement is inductive-deductive." * One 
* Dewey, How We Think, p. 203, 



226 DIRECTING STUDY 

criticism of formal methods is that the attempt seems 
to be to conceive the movement of thought as being 
either wholly inductive or deductive. The separation 
is unfortunate. The thought movement is one of 
integrating analysis and synthesis functionally bound 
up in a deeper unity than either alone suggests. 

The quarrel we have with the disciples of Herbart 
lies in the apparent fact of their insistence upon a 
closed and authoritative method. It would seem, at 
times, that if one wants to know what to teach, when 
to teach it, and how to teach it, all one needs to do is 
to ask them and they are prepared to reveal it all in 
advance of the journey. The subject-matter is defi- 
nitely laid out and the ready-made methods can be 
furnished. The indolent formalist is strongly tempted to 
accept all these accredited forms and to administer his 
work under the control of arbitrary standards to the utter 
neglect of that continuous moral analysis which is im- 
perative in the application of the social principle to edu- 
cational procedures. 

Life situations do not come to us gummed and 
labelled and arranged in that logical order presupposed 
in the five formal steps. A young man selecting his 
bride would encounter serious difiiculties if he pro- 
ceeded in the order of preparation, presentation, com- 
parison, generalization, application. He would prob- 
ably break down somewhere in the third step — the 
step, by the way, which marks the degree of progress 
in this method, as a rule, in the schoolroom. 

The power to generalize experience and the capacity 
to make application in any vital sense are sadly neg- 
lected in our pedagogical practices. Of preparation 
there is no end — reviews, ambushing the facts, much 



THE SOCIAL PRINCIPLE 227 

ado in getting ready to do something. Of presenta- 
tion we have an enormous activity and display — ex- 
planations, diagrams, pictures, rules, stereopticons, and 
moving pictures, all of which may be used to promote 
absorption of facts or as a splendid aid in the develop- 
ment of clear and economical thinking. 

The time devoted to comparison, that is, the time 
actually devoted to an examination of data for the 
explicit purpose of drawing independent conclusions, 
is scant indeed. If, however, the full significance of 
all five steps could be attained, there would still be 
much to give us pause. Any system or methodology 
that becomes rigid and inflexible deletes automati- 
cally the responsibility for keeping up a continuous 
moral analysis. 

Learning Practical Things Out of School. — In learn- 
ing practical matters there is no elaborate formalism 
superimposed in the nature of indirect and apparently 
unrelated steps. Means and ends are organically 
integrated in a way that tends to obliterate distinctions 
between academic or theoretical propositions and use- 
ful objectives. It is not, however, a valid argument 
to maintain the thesis that all educational practices 
can be directly related to the immediately useful. 
One must learn to fiddle before playing in the orchestra. 
The difficulty in dealing with large areas of education 
lies in the fact that possible remote values must be 
considered. In other words, it is futile to urge that 
all aspects of education can be reduced to the directly 
practical or vocational basis. 

Some work of the school is definitely instrumental; 
dividends are deferred. Practice, also, in the manipu- 
lation of what may be called tools of training is essen- 



228 DIRECTING STUDY 

tial. The theory of education as preparation intrudes 
itself constantly. In spite of this tendency, however, 
it is possible to introduce the element of realness even 
in those abstract categories which occupy the centre 
of attention in so many courses of instruction. Simply 
because remote interests are involved is no logical 
reason for depreciating the value of any course or 
part of it. Hence no illusion is entertained about 
making a curriculum in which just practical "proj- 
ects" will appear. An illustration in learning some 
every-day problem is suggested only for purposes of 
departure. 

If the boy is confronted with the mastery of the 
automobile (mastery in the sense of being able to use 
the machine and to know what to do in the emergencies 
that arise in its use), the method of learning is direct 
and constantly tied up with the step of application. 
There is no disposition to spend several lessons on the 
origin and development of wheels and vehicles and 
applications of power. The step of preparation is a 
short one indeed for the boy keen to try his hand at 
the wheel. There is no time-consuming programme 
of explanation of vital parts, comparison of machines, 
and the slow and steady process of building the auto- 
mobile concept prior to a real experience in driving 
the machine. 

The academic way postpones the interesting step 
(application) to a time so far ahead that the boy would 
lose interest in the course. The learning of the auto- 
mobile in the practical way appeals to the learner be- 
cause a sense of mastery is quickly attained. There 
is something doing, as we say, immediately, and the 
results of one's efforts are strikingly revealed at every 
stage in the learning process. 



THE SOCIAL PRINCIPLE 229 

All these other fine "lessons" may be looped up in 
a genuine realization after gripping the significance of 
a real boy plus a real automobile experience. Inte- 
grated with that item of significance an extended course 
of instruction may be built around the automobile, 
every "lesson" of which might be so conducted as to 
arouse curiosity and stimulate interest. All that may 
be desired in the historic development of vehicles and 
in the mathematical desiderata utilized in constructing 
the engines and models, etc., could be related to a 
going concern. 

One may indulge the fancy that studies in the school 
might be modified in the direction suggested in this 
somewhat idealized automobile experience. The arbi- 
trary separation between abstract categories and con- 
crete relations is disappearing. Perhaps the termi- 
nology itself is unfortunate. The essential matter is 
to grip the significance and meaning of experience in 
the solution of vital problems. 

The general movement to indicate the practical 
significance of many courses of instruction, formerly 
pursued for alleged disciplinary ends, is a concession 
to modern pragmatism. Every effort is exerted to 
make vital connections with our modern life in the 
study of Latin, ancient history, botany, algebra, chem- 
istry, geometry, etc. The hope of starting in the quest 
for truth or mastery with some problem dated in the 
present is expressed in all sorts of attempts to orient 
the pupil to the values of the practical studies laid out 
in the curriculum. 

Much has been proposed in the desire to start the 
study of history with problems of immediate interest 
and to work back into the antecedents by finding how 
this and that problem of the present developed. The 



230 DIRECTING STUDY 

question turns upon the, chronological order of events. 
But whether some radical innovation is introduced or 
the old method is pursued, the interesting fact is that 
in either case there is a deliberate effort being made to 
show the relation of the past to our present and future 
problems. 

In the study of Latin the pupil is constantly re- 
minded of the relation of his work to his vernacular. 
It would be exceedingly difficult to relate all the work 
of the school to our immediate life. And, furthermore, 
it is a fundamental fallacy to assume that pupils are 
not interested or, better, that they may not become 
intensely interested in things remote from present-day 
needs or in things abstract. By rewarding achieve- 
ment and effort in learning or mastering forms or exer- 
cises that could have no conceivable significance be- 
yond the mere sense of accomplishment, many pupils 
are induced to respond with abounding enthusiasm. 
This is not an argument for the retention of useless 
material in the curriculum, not stopping here to define 
what is useless — a very difficult job, by the way. 

Evils of Uniformity and Remedies. — The knowledge 
ideal and mechanical methods have developed the 
lock-step in education. Progressive educators are 
seeking ways of obviating a system characterized by 
a practice of in-together, on-together, all-together, 
out-together. The effect of uniformity is frequently 
expressed in the attempt to reduce all members of the 
class to some level of group average or group medi- 
ocrity. The evils of the system are everywhere com- 
ing to be recognized. The remedies, for the most part, 
fail to take into account the ideals which produce the 
system itself. 



THE SOCIAL PRINCIPLE 231 

The proposition to bring together the supernormal 
pupils of a given grade or mental age is not only an 
impractical administrative undertaking, but unde- 
sirable from the One-from-Many view-point of our 
social organization, interpreted in terms of alternate 
leaderships and interdependent relationships. It is a 
proposition, too, that seems to allege that man is al- 
ready, instead of a sturdy facing of the doctrine that 
"Man is not, until he becomes." Moreover, in all the 
proposed schemes for assembling pupils of alleged 
homogeneous ability, the errors of the instructional 
ideal may be perpetuated. An accelerant supernormal 
section may be exposed swiftly to all the errors in the 
doctrine and practices which are vigorously con- 
demned. 

It will be readily granted that some modification 
of practice which aims to overcome the disadvantages 
of uniformity is desirable. Our problem in this dis- 
cussion, it will be remembered, is that of meeting more 
adequately the exigent demands of the modern school, 
as it is at present constituted, than is possible under 
the recitation system. No doubt a more adequate 
and scientific practice of placement of pupils will be 
developed than that which now obtains. But to-day 
teachers are confronted with the task of educating 
boys and girls as they are assigned under the prevail- 
ing sanctions. It is not at all improbable that a deeper 
scientific study of the problem of placement may not 
bring together pupils of greater range in chronological 
ages than we now find. In non-sequential courses 
there may be economies in the congregation of pupils 
of comparatively marked differences in experience and 
age. 



232 DIRECTING STUDY 

At all events, whatever programme is adopted in 
ascertaining the opportune time for some thirty po- 
tential geometricians, political scientists, poets, et 
cetera, to congregate for the study of geometry, civics, 
"The Village Blacksmith," or almost any other study 
within the approximate range of these thirty candi- 
dates, a tremendous gain will be made if it is perceived 
clearly that thirty individuals are there. Thirty in- 
dividuals are there in no sense equal in any immediate 
finite attainment, and, what is more to the point, they 
should not be regarded as so many units to be rounded 
out toward any conceivable sort of uniformity. Really, 
under the procedure advocated in this interpretation 
of directing study every open avenue of opportunity 
should be utilized for greater and more penetrating 
differences in this group of thirty individuals as they 
progress in the course. 

The New School. — If this challenge is accepted, 
then it follows that the set-lesson (uniform) assign- 
ment, the minimum-essential-cow/ewJ doctrine, and all 
the progeny of these ideas must go. The lesson-hear- 
ing school must go. The recitation, belonging to an 
age when books were few and schools were established 
to impart knowledge and to test the student's capacity 
to absorb and store up unrelated information, it, too, 
must go. Collective or mass teaching which aims at 
a mythical average pupil, defended because it is easy 
or because provision for individuality would be ex- 
ceedingly difficult to realize, that too must surely go. 

That school to be a good school in the immediate 
future will undertake to develop in its pupils an ever- 
growing personal efficiency in using stored-up subject- 
matter to approach new and unexpected situations 



THE SOCIAL PRINCIPLE 233 

and to solve new problems. Pupils will be dealt with 
as individuals; no pupil will be held back because 
others are developing more slowly than he, and no 
one will be pushed forward beyond his capacity merely 
because others are more rapid in developing power. 
The entire school procedure will be flexible, not rigid; 
it will encourage individuality, self-mastery, initiative, 
and personal responsibility. 

Set lessons, definitely prescribing the upper limit of 
accomplishment of the good pupil, will rarely be given. 
The teacher will become the director of activities; 
his assignments, often arrived at in consultation with 
the class, determine the direction in which the group 
shall work, but do not prescribe the amount of ac- 
complishment in that general direction which each 
pupil must, or may, make. 

Pupils who excel in accomplishment will be rewarded 
by increased opportunities and responsibilities; fre- 
quently they will be promoted for a time to assist the 
teacher in directing the activities of the class. 

Home study will usually not be sharply distinguished 
from classroom activities; in general the class hour 
will be spent in working ahead, not in reviewing, sum- 
marizing, or reciting upon subject-matter which has 
been studied out of school. Home work will be ordi- 
narily of the nature of unfinished business; that is, 
it will complete, supplement, expand, and verify what 
has been begun under the teacher's guidance within 
the class group. 

This practice of directing study will tend, it is be- 
lieved, to develop in each pupil the most effective 
habits of attention, concentration, and achievement 
which he is capable of acquiring; it will develop his 



234 DIRECTING STUDY 

initiative because he must begin his undertaking with- 
out depending upon the initiative of another for his 
ideas or for his impulse to start; the teacher, an ex- 
pert in education, will be in general much better quali- 
fied than a parent to judge exactly what assistance 
may most profitably be given a pupil in the study of 
his lessons. The school will aim to direct its pupils 
through subject-matter to power. The curriculum and 
the expert activities of its teachers will be regarded 
as means to an end; they will be conceived as tools 
for the fashioning of self-active, responsible young 
people. The endeavor will be to determine by prac- 
tical application the best possible choice of subject- 
matter and the most serviceable ways of teaching and 
of school administration to further the development of 
its pupils. Nothing will be retained merely because it 
is traditional; nothing will be discarded merely because 
it is unfashionable; an earnest attempt will be made to 
be reasonably conservative and to keep free from edu- 
cational fads. There will be no disposition to conduct 
experimentation without regard to the immediate wel- 
fare of the pupils involved. 

If the choice is forced between adventure and effi- 
ciency there can be no doubt in the defense of this 
thesis as to which is to be preferred. If either must be 
sacrificed, it will be the latter. Yet one may argue 
very properly that the eternal problem of our de- 
mocracy is "Can Democracy be Organized?" with- 
out destroying personal initiative and deleting the spirit 
of adventure. 

Every Class a Prospecting Party. — We have sug- 
gested the colorful figure that our class might be organ- 
ized as a prospecting party with the leadership of a 



THE SOCIAL PRINCIPLE 235 

teacher as consulting expert. All members of the group 
are to become prospectors. No one is to be an ever- 
lasting minor, an unthinking follower. The canyon up 
which the whole party will enter to-day will ordinarily 
be sign-posted by the teacher; although in this a fine 
sense of directing energy will obviate dogmatism and 
officiousness. In a vital way provision will be made for 
mutuality in choosing at the "fork of the road." The 
party will not have any camp-followers. 

That Emersonian quality of self-respect will be cul- 
tivated in every person in this adventure. The director 
of activities, the new teacher, will no doubt be familiar 
with the possibilities for discovery of values up these 
canyons. There will be something to do beyond an 
examination of the debris and the tailings left by pre- 
vious prospectors. Each individual will be stimulated 
and guided in the adventure in a manner that will 
enable him to survey and dig to some extent on his 
own account. No one will be allowed to develop by 
himself at the hazard of indolence. 

All are true sportsmen and equal in that respect. 
Each may work in the hope of bringing to the dis- 
cussion about the camp-fire some personal experience 
gained in the adventure, some nugget discovered by 
himself, some promising lead for further investigation. 
In the discussion each will have an opportunity to 
contribute something, no matter how insignificant in 
itself, that no one else has discovered. The basis is 
laid here for the cultivation of a genuine self-respect. 

There is a possible escape from a flat uniformity. 
No healthy boy enjoys doing his work by proxy. He 
wants to get into the game on his level. Listening in a 
situation in which there is a chance for the cross- 



236 DIRECTING STUDY 

fertilization of ideas elevates and dignifies the pro- 
cedure by recognizing the factors employed in stimu- 
lating and challenging conversation. The importance 
of making provision for originality, even in so small a 
measure as making it possible for any pupil to contrib- 
ute a salient brute fact to the discussion not thought 
of by any other member of the group, can hardly 
be overestimated. 

A Moral Basis of Methodology. — In general, the 
teacher is expected to know what is best for his pupils. 
The disposition, however, to become a kind of brother's 
keeper in the processes of control and direction is often 
tacitly accepted and encouraged. It is a common 
practice to stand the other fellows up and shoot at 
them with our benevolence. A certain form of Neo- 
Puritanism promotes the view that we know what is 
needed for the other fellow. Hence " to hold the class " 
is regarded as a fundamental qualification of the school- 
master. The external form of discipline is made the 
basic tenet in the doctrine that "Order is heaven's 
first law." 

Carried to its logical conclusion state absolutism de- 
nies the worth of the individual and refuses to concern 
itself with the rights and obligations of the individual 
as a free agent. In the extreme form this absolutism 
undertakes to set the appointed lesson, the appointed 
hour, the appointed method in advance of the journey. 
The alternative is not idle freedom or any species of 
determined ignorance or the anarchy of tolerance. 
We have already pointed out the path to freedom in 
work. The ability of a class to hold itself may be a 
goal worth striving for. Yet, our position is rather a 
deliberate effort to develop the self-active, co-operative, 



THE SOCIAL PRINCIPLE 237 

responsible individual in a shared leadership in which 
the teacher is able to direct energy to fruitful ends. 
The programme is not laid down with precision. 

The sub ject-matter' of morals is concerned with the 
" deed-to-be-done." When confronted with the eternal 
pragmatic question "What am I to do next?" the thing 
to be done is never an exact copy of what has been 
done. All that has been done must be translated from 
the indicative into the imperative in facing a moral 
situation. 

The practice of morality has its locus in choice. 
"What am I to do next?" in this and that situation 
in meeting the endless panorama of events in teaching 
involves the hazard of adventure. The only escape 
from this responsibility is to accept a finished abso- 
lutism and to superimpose a kind of intellectual goose- 
step without regard to the effect upon those for whom 
the prescription is made. 

A curious inversion of the notion of freedom may be 
wrought through a willing acceptance of obedience and 
discipline. A whole nation may be indoctrinated 
through education with a sense of its own superiority 
and the superior qualities of its own citizens. The 
ideal of organization may be extended and refined until 
the majesty of plan and precision becomes a fetich. 
The psychology of unthinking obedience and of loyalty 
to the ideal of organization is both primitive and dan- 
gerous. All this follows upon the acceptance of society 
as a machine existing for some material purpose. In 
one direction the emphasis in education is to discover 
what the individual is good for and then to train him for 
some part in the machine. 

In direct antithesis to this mechanical theory of edu- 



238 DIRECTING STUDY 

cation we have the conception of society as a living 
thing. The individual must discover the purpose of 
his own life in an association of human beings. Every 
human being in the conception of society as a living 
thing must be free to become an excellent judge of his 
own developing powers and his own opportunities. 
This view is the democratic theory of society. 

One may store up vast quantities of ancient lore and 
have at command the how, the when, and the why and 
the that of every previous circumstance and yet be as 
ignorant as Balaam's proverbial ass before the chal- 
lenge "What am I to do next?" in a human situation. 
The last great adventure may be charted and every 
current and shift of wind annotated on the margin and 
in foot-note, and yet leave one stuck in the mire of 
irresolution unless there is a moral optimism, a moral 
character that enables one to sail out in changing, 
uncharted seas of human conduct, or do the simplest 
next thing, namely, to choose to eat a biscuit or to 
make the next move in the game of checkers. 

The next step is not taken by reproducing a copy of 
the previous motion. One may keep all the laws, com- 
mit no crimes, and yet the heroic deed or the chivalric 
act may never occur. 

The practising ground for morality is developed, not 
by exact formulation, not by exact rules of the past 
applied as copy, but by taking the moral risk in the 
adventure that calls for choice and decision. It is for 
this reason that devices for teaching are rarely negoti- 
able. It is for this reason that "methods" of teaching 
have been held in contempt by scholarly men. The 
adaptation of devices is to be encouraged. Whenever 
the method is reconstructed in terms of one's own prob- 



THE SOCIAL PRINCIPLE 239 

lems and experience, there is valid ground for the at- 
tempt to communicate procedures to others. 

The ethics of methodology with a clear field ahead 
for the practice of morality must inevitably be con- 
tained in that chapter in any book on "How to Teach" 
just after the last chapter in the book. That chapter must 
be constantly rewritten and never appear in print. 
There can be no vital, moral situation in any classroom 
unless that interesting chapter is being constantly 
written in the flux and interplay of human forces. 

This view frankly subordinates the intellectualistic 
and national principles and ideals to the moral and 
social principles and ideals. Conscience is above 
science. The artist is above the artisan. Character 
is the result of social interaction; character is built 
in the stream of life. 

The new declaration is that my teaching is your 
learning viewed from my angle, and your learning is 
my teaching viewed from your angle. Democratic 
ideals call for the application of this interacting prin- 
ciple. The business is not a transaction, a mechanical 
addition of disparate actions, but an interaction. 

Heretofore the professor lectured, taught, imparted 
information; the student listened, learned, reacted 
(perhaps). Neither assumed a dynamic responsibility. 
If the student failed, an assortment of reasons (alibis) 
was at hand. Now, under the democratic movement, 
the teacher may not dismiss the pupil from his mind. 
The requirement is to locate responsibility by examin- 
ing the facts and by prescribing the medicine and by 
changing the treatment, if need be. 

The old pedagogy, constructed along arbitrary and 
mechanical lines, afforded abundant opportunity for 



240 DIRECTING STUDY 

the indolent formalist to execute all sorts of meta- 
physical flank movements, the classical example of 
which is the famous trick executed by Plato on the 
Sophists when the question of reality was removed to 
the celestial shoe, the visible shoe being only a copy 
of that ethereal invention. In other words, it has 
always been easy for the schoolmaster to explain the 
failures of his students. Now with the more intimate 
and immediate types of direction, control, checking, 
and appraising in teaching contemplated in an inter- 
pretation of ethics from the point of view of the con- 
sumer, rather than the producer, it is becoming ap- 
parent that pupils and teacher shall come to terms 
with each other on the basis of mutuality. 

In passing from the aristocratic temper over to a 
democratic attitude the law is no longer regarded as 
the schoolmaster. Under the influence of the old order 
the practice was to have first a course in the law and 
then a course in Christianity. The demand which 
St. Paul made was that man shall have the latter 
straightaway. The law can hardly serve as a tem- 
porary expedient. The alleged secret is out. The 
American youngster in these times is not inclined to 
regard his teacher as the law. The moral effect of 
pretending to possess a virtue or quality as a tem- 
porary expedient is obvious. 

The survival of certain forms of Neo-Puritanism is 
a mark of the aristocratic temper. What is good for 
"others" raises an interesting question. Consensus 
of opinion and majority decision in a democracy can 
usually be relied upon as a means of securing justice 
and freedom. There is, however, a tendency to fall 
back upon authoritative statement and to superpose 



THE SOCIAL PRINCIPLE 241 

prescriptive methods. In autocratic forms of social 
organization the ruling class exercises the right to 
dictate the terms upon which the masses shall live. 
In building the self-active, responsible, socially minded 
personality in a democratic society the school must 
perform a unique function — a function radically dif- 
ferent from that which is deemed adequate and en- 
tirely satisfactory in anti-democratic states. 

The new ethical humanism can be translated into 
every-day practice by employing the social principle. 
The knowledge ideal, intellectualism, will not be dis- 
regarded. No plea is being set up for ignorance. The 
entire programme is to be modified by shifting the 
emphasis from the primacy of information to the pri- 
macy of boys and girls as reacting agents. 

It is not enough to remove "impediments from 
without." The old absolutism parades under a new 
guise if "impediments from within" are harbored. If 
the practising ground for morality includes as one of 
its main ingredients the element of choice at the fork 
of the road, it is exceedingly difficult to negotiate a 
methodology conceived in terms of ready-made devices 
and closed categories. The inevitable tendency to re- 
duce "methods" to a formal and mechanical routine 
deletes the practice of choosing freely. It is the bold, 
energetic, affirmative, and self-assertive will that ven- 
tures with a moral optimism into new and complex 
situations. 

In the field of experimentation log-books are more 
important than plan-books and guides. In making 
honest entries in the former we may develop a keen 
sense of self-criticism and refine our powers of judg- 
ment. 



242 DIRECTING STUDY 

There is no break in this emphasis with modern 
science; in fact, modern science is concerned at every 
turn with the same fundamental query, namely, "What 
am I to do next?" in this and that situation. The 
ability to move forward in the experimental method 
is a sign of moral stamina. There is no point in the 
idle reaction that any reference to the moral fibre is 
a mark of sentimentalism. Experimental science, 
surely the experimental method, furnishes an excellent 
field for the exercise of morality. 

The plea is not for educational self-determination. 
It is not a plea for the low mythology of equality in 
which American politics weltered for well-nigh a cen- 
tury. It may be regarded as a new programme in 
which individualism is guaranteed (even to children) 
and also a clear path toward a full recognition and 
appreciation of alternate leaderships and the genius 
for co-operation, not by schemes of regimental uni- 
formity, not by swallowing up the individual in a so- 
cialistic composite self, but rather the urge of a new 
sense of moral responsibility and a boundless respect 
for each and all in a democracy. 

This means an end of status and a frank recognition 
of the evocative and creative powers of every normally 
constituted person. To accomplish this end the teacher 
should recognize the pupil's "Right to be Wrong." 
There will be less superimposition of accredited knowl- 
edge as erudition. There will be time to consider the 
position and the point of view of the learner. He may 
be of the firm conviction that the earth is not spherical. 
It is not wise to ask him to repeat a conventional ritual 
about it merely for the sake of conformity. If there 
arises honest debate, the hope of education is being 
realized!? 



THE SOCIAL PRINCIPLE 243 

The superstructure of systematization, all that is 
lugged in under the aegis of national efficiency, may 
operate against the full-orbed development of the 
individual. This happens when life is sacrificed to 
the majesty of plan and precision. 

The objective set forth in this analysis is a revealing 
of the ideals of America redirected to reason and self- 
realization through invigorating programmes of self- 
direction under team-play. There is nothing alarm- 
ing in this proposition when we hitch up our trusteeship 
with Hampden, Burke, Washington, and Lincoln. 

The Prussian system of education with its ugly 
mechanism, nationalism, exclusive intellectualism, and 
politicism has been tried and found wanting. It failed 
to produce the morally self-directing, self-lawgiving 
personality. We in America were not far-seeing in 
imitating Prussian methodology. 

The social institutions of cricket and football offer 
a suggestion: "The captain, ah! what a responsibility 
— firmness, gentleness, skill, and I know not what 
other rare qualities — almost equal to those of the head- 
master." This is a recognition of the social-moral 
principle which is capable of being incorporated into 
our classroom procedure. It would mean no longer 
the law (drill and preparation) and then a course in 
civic responsibility (application). The boys and girls 
should be trained in responsibility for choosing. It 
means that originality, creativeness, initiative, shall 
be growing qualities now in every pupil to the full mea- 
sure of his possibility. Each will be given a fair oppor- 
tunity to develop his own idiomatic personality. The 
individual is not to be hammered into a certain pre- 
determined pattern. In his obedience to rightly con- 



244 DIRECTING STUDY 

stituted authority he is to become intelligent. Ex- 
ternal discipline is directed toward the goal of a "must 
be" from within. In all this the individual counts 
and has value in a social-moral order. 

The old assumptions that some are to be everlasting 
minors, to be kept by their brothers, to be excluded 
somehow from the intellectual, material, and spiritual 
resources of the nation — all that is a recrudescence of 
the aristocratic order. The time to begin this new edu- 
cation is this very hour. We have been influenced by 
the old theology long enough; we need a new theology. 
This world was conceived as a preparation for another. 
That led to the gospel of resignation; man escaped the 
social problems of the day. It's no use to prolong the 
argument. Education must find a new dynamic in 
life here and now and on-going. Plan or method is 
inherent in the process. It is ours to unify and co- 
ordinate our ideals out of a serious, joyous striving 
under the philosophy of self-expression, or self-effec- 
tuation wherein the "discharge of life" is the main- 
spring and urge. 

He who would teach by pattern methods,, thinking 
he may on that account be scientific, misses both life 
and the scientific temper, and besides fails to afford a 
deliberate practising ground for morality. The teacher 
who has found a formula, a recipe by which to operate 
on little Billy who plays truant next October has igno- 
miniously failed — not only in handling Billy (he has 
protective coloring), but he has lost the trail utterly 
in his own moral growth. 

Plato long since urged it: "In all language, customs, 
mathematics, etc., if you would really do it you must 
rub the phenomena of the individual psyche with the 



THE SOCIAL PRINCIPLE 245 

social life, as you would rub two sticks together (a 
ruler of rubber and a flannel rag) if you would produce 
the flash of light." 

There is no "spiritual explosion" when status reigns 
— teacher-mind off there on a pedestal (furtive pulpit) 
and pupil-mind off there (in the mourner's pew). The 
belt is off the human generator. The generator is out 
of repair or it needs oil. The social principle is the 
clutch which throws the belt on the human generator. 
The course of study which lays down in specific terms 
in January, 1922, what is to be done in December, 
1923, is also an educational culprit. The set lesson 
(uniform) with a just-" set "-in-your-seat-and-study — 
all this from the yesterdays will not be adequate for 
to-morrow. It all tends to place a veto on our to- 
morrows. And in just so far as that happens by so 
much is the ground cut away for the practice of origi- 
nality and choice at the fork of the road; hence, no 
dynamic exists for morality. The cut-and-dried plan- 
book is conceived out of a Prussian intellectualism. It 
is based upon indoctrination of ideals and facts, as such. 

Nobody in that scheme of education wants a self- 
active metabolism. In that system the aim is to go 
about scraping together little dabs of information on a 
purely intellectual quest. Man is more than such a 
philosophy would indicate. Man is primarily a willing 
and feeling (appreciating), as well as an intellectual, 
animal. He, in America, is a determined willing cre- 
ator. 

It is one thing to make discipline serve the ends of 
education; it is an entirely different thing to make edu- 
cation serve the ends of a disciplined manhood. Noth- 
ing short of instant and willing obedience to authority 



246 DIRECTING STUDY 

can be accepted in the adventure of creating the gen- 
tleman in a democracy. And yet, that authority 
which is imperative in building the responsible indi- 
vidual rests upon a discipline that serves the ends of 
democratic education. The goal is self-discipline — 
a must-be from within. 



CHAPTER VII 

INITIATIVE AND AUTHORITY 

The Nature of Freedom. — If we start in the quest 
of effective freedom by prospecting up the canyon sign- 
posted "Liberty is an Achievement, not a Donation,'" 
then it will be evident that it is the artist who has 
freedom to paint the picture, the athlete to run the 
race, the judge to render a decision in law, the scholar 
to express a judgment in his chosen field, the locomotive 
engineer to turn on the power, the surgeon to perform 
the operation, etc. In brief, any real freedom, in any 
direction, must be earned. The price of self-discipline 
must be paid by all alike. The true liberty man pos- 
sesses is the liberty he has worked up to. The "free" 
execution of the pianist is the goal toward which this 
chapter is pointed. 

A severe doctrine, indeed! Yet actually "Man 
creates himself by his own activity," as Kant phrased 
it. Each individual is a candidate for personality. 
"Man is not, until he becomes." Here is a sure foun- 
dation upon which to build the free-operating, self- 
active, responsible person. The process of candidat- 
ing, of becoming, may be carried on indefinitely. 

The "educated man" is an unfortunate way of ex- 
pressing it. The difficulty lies in the ending, ed — a dim 
survival of the product of the finishing-school. There 
are, too, the "educated failures" — those who accumu- 
late a sufficient number of marks, indicative of inca- 

247 



248 DIRECTING STUDY 

pacity, to be recommended for the final honors of the 
school. Half-learning, a total failure to incorporate 
the spirit of the subject, duck-backing an education 
are familiar forms of indictment of our schooling. Any 
definition of education is inadequate that fails to em- 
phasize a growing personality and a "continuous re- 
construction of experience." 

Freedom is never a passive right; it is a quality of 
actual achieving. The "free" man in his particular 
mode of excellence or skill does not lay by a store of 
energy, called his liberty, which he may draw upon at 
will. The exponents of original endowment seem to 
imply, now and again, that all a "genius" needs to 
do is to draw on a reservoir of stored-up energy, smite 
some rock as a Moses of old, and the life-giving ele- 
ments will issue forth. 

By ceasing to energize in profession or work, by per- 
mitting effort-making capacity to cease or run at low 
ebb, one loses whatever freedom one has achieved. 

From Irrational Intolerance to the Anarchy of Toler- 
ance. — About four hundred years ago, when the modern 
democrat began to grow up, irrational authority could 
no longer be secure in its old sanctions. The story of 
the struggle for freedom of thought has been both thrill- 
ing and pathetic. When the old securities began to 
disintegrate, there appeared a new menace to progress. 
Equality of status of all "honest" opinions with judg- 
ments based upon rational sanctions was substituted 
for the aristocracy of opinion and authoritative man- 
dates. We are still living in an age in which the sanc- 
tity of opinions is as jealously protected as that of 
property. Freedom of thought is safe only when it is 
realized that it entails a desperate responsibility to 



INITIATIVE AND AUTHORITY 249 

think, and to think not in terms of a superficial ra- 
tionalizing, but in terms of our modern scientific and 
creative modes. 

Our intolerable modern tolerance is working havoc in 
no phase of life to-day with such tragic consequences 
as in education in its wider significance. Some fanatic 
cult or group of queer folk is perfectly secure in our 
democratic America in holding mediaeval opinions and 
in "educating" its children in the doctrines of organi- 
zations wholly out of touch and sympathy with twen- 
tieth-century science and morality. Such a cult is pro- 
tected by the state in teaching that the earth is flat, 
that evolution is the work of his Satanic Majesty, or 
that loyalty to the ideals of the nation is only a cunning 
scheme of the politician. And just because such opin- 
ions are thought to be "honest" opinions their sanctity 
is not molested. 

A whole nation, a mighty potential people, may be 
corrupted to the very roots by a false attitude or ideal 
under the protection of "honest" opinions. Even a 
democracy may be seduced by some insidious propa- 
ganda of the uber-alles theory, such as America over 
all, and the schools may become indoctrinated with 
that ideal under the enthusiastic leadership of un- 
doubted patriots spreading their gospel, thrilled with 
perfectly "honest" opinions. The deeper loyalties to 
the commonwealth and to humanity may not be se- 
cured by such methods at all. 

The day of the old repressive measures under irra- 
tional sanctions are rapidly passing with respect to 
external forms of deformation and wrongs. There 
remain all those "impediments from within" which 
hinder the free development of the child and which 



250 DIRECTING STUDY 

make impossible the full release of every wholesome 
potentiality. The age of fourteen, a remnant of an old 
theological dogma of church confirmation, is still re- 
garded by the great majority of "intelligent" Ameri- 
cans as the proper leaving age in school legislation. 
Crystallization of educational public opinion on this 
leaving age has no doubt been stressfully augmented 
by extensive imitation of German ideals and practices. 
At fourteen the child in Germany in the Volksschulen 
was shunted into vocational schools. " Statesmen " are 
pathetically indifferent to the cry of the adolescent in 
this twentieth century. The "right" of parents to 
take the child out of school at fourteen years of age is 
blindly protected. Only about 30 per cent of the youth 
of the nation are in our high schools; the level of Ameri- 
can citizenship is barely above the 6th grade. It is not 
enough to point with pride or to view with alarm the 
development of the high school. Our neglect of adoles- 
cence will be looked back upon as the consummate 
instance of the communal crimes for which we shall 
be despised. The argument for full-time education 
for the youth of the nation is overwhelming, yet we 
in America allow boys and girls to sally forth unpro- 
tected and uninstructed into the world just when that 
all-important sex instinct is beginning to obtrude it- 
self upon consciousness. They become fagged juvenile 
workers in our machine age and are rapidly exposed 
to all manner of debasing influences. A beggarly 
eight hours a week in continuation schools is a shame- 
ful beginning. The imperative need of full-time edu- 
cation for all the youth of the nation up through the 
high school, or at least until eighteen years of age, is 
too obvious for elaboration. 



INITIATIVE AND AUTHORITY 251 

Here is the major difficulty blocking the road to real 
progress in the emancipation of the child and the full 
release of creative power: 

Opinions are sacred and inviolable individual rights — every 
folly and patent idiocy can claim the same "respect" as the most 
stringent rational conclusion. // any one should venture to raise 
a doubt about the right to inflict deliberate and irremediable deforma- 
tion on the defenseless ' mind of a child, to instil irrational prej- 
udices, to teach falsehoods to cripple effectually and completely his 
rational powers, to poison the sources of judgment, to rob him of 
his human heritage — such a suggestion [any interference in the 
right of a parent or cult to inflict deliberate deformation on the 
defenseless mind of a child] would raise a storm of righteous 
indignation, the cry would go up from the successors of the In- 
quisitors and High Commissioners that the sacred rights of con- 
science are being challenged, that it sought to bring back the days 
of persecution and intolerance, that liberty, freedom of teach- 
ing, the most indefeasible rights of the subject are being menaced 
and violated. It would be as scandalous to dispute that the 
parent has an absolute right to strangle a child's mind as it would 
formerly have been to dispute his right to strangle his body. 
All sincere opinions are " honest." Wrong must not be tolerated, 
but every opinion has a sacred right to be tolerated.* 

A Projected Investigation into the Life Basis of 
Human Behavior. — Would that some great scientific 
humanist might be endowed with adequate funds to 
conduct a real experiment along the following lines ! 
($50,000 would be little enough: this is no job for the 
amateur student writing an undergraduate thesis). 
Here is the problem: Let him give the modern 
"intelligence" tests in September to some 100 children 
in the 2d or 9th grade, say; file the results in a secure 
pigeonhole and leave them there until the end of the 

*Briffault, Robert, The Making of Humanity, p. 319. 



252 DIRECTING STUDY 

school year. These tests will constitute A in the in- 
vestigation. Neither this scientific humanist nor the 
teachers are to know the results of these tests until 
one year has elapsed. 

At the close of the year let the marks of the teachers 
be collected and filed in another secure pigeonhole. 
These marks will constitute B in the investigation. 

Now, upon giving the A tests, let our scientific 
humanist give full time (at a salary of about $10,000) 
with expert assistants — a physician, an histologist, a 
psychiatrist, a social psychologist, an educational 
biologist — and make a study of these kiddies in their 
home contacts and in such other non-school relations 
as may reveal individual variations in the broader 
training of life. These results will constitute C in 
the investigation. A "standard" will be constructed. 
Our scientific humanist will cunningly contrive to find 
out what the intellectual interests of the child's 
parents, relatives, and immediate friends are. He 
will go into the homes to detect whether the child 
has a "dad" or a father; whether or not the par- 
ents are good teachers of lessons assigned for home 
work by the school; whether the child is told at the 
common board that he is to be seen and not heard; 
whether there is the old irrational intolerance with the 
little child, general indulgence, or a fine sense of effec- 
tive freedom; whether the measures are repressive or 
rationally directed to effective self-expression, etc. 
He will discover what books and periodicals and other 
educative mental food are in the home. He will dis- 
close those character-making forces in the intimate rela- 
tions between father and son in the dressing-room in 
the morning, about the hearthstone in the evening, 



INITIATIVE AND AUTHORITY 253 

in the hike and the game, in the work they may do 
co-operatively or by dictatorial authority. He will dis- 
close the opportunities and responsibilities of the child 
in the many-sided activities of the home and other 
institutions out of school. He will discover what the 
incentives are in music and in all forms of artistic ex- 
pression impinging on the life of the growing youngster. 
The sturdy parent, poor in worldly goods, may be 
instituting his fledgling into his social heritage in a 
marvellous way, while an aristocratic neighbor may be 
indulging his progeny. These are only hints of the 
year's work to be done under C in the investigation. 
Perhaps many years will be required for adequate 
mastery of the problem. An endless complexity of 
backgrounds must be considered. 

Then let the experts open A and B and make their 
quartile distributions and establish their correlations. 
The real task is still untouched. Our scientific hu- 
manist brings in his data under C. Now let him make 
a careful comparison between A and C and again be- 
tween B and C. It may be that he will find that the dice 
are loaded in A and B. In other words, may it not be 
that the conditions and circumstances which produce A 
likewise produce B? And it may be that those conditions 
and circumstances lie wholly within the remediable fields 
of human behavior. It may be that the factor of original 
structure plays a minor role in all this. That is to 
say, it may be that nearly all the successes and diffi- 
culties of children in school will be discovered to be 
conditioned mainly by all this wealth or poverty of 
backgrounds under C. The suggestion here for the 
educator is to study procedure values and to cultivate 
all those influences that tend to develop creativeness 



254 DIRECTING STUDY 

and initiative. It may be that some children are ac- 
tually being dwarfed by the methods of education. 
It may be that in more cases than we imagine the father 
or mother or an interested outsider is the real guide 
and director of the child's creative genius and that the 
formalism of the school fails to smother it out. If the 
full effect of C could be realized it might serve to en- 
force the hypothesis that the pupil shall become the 
educative unit and not the class group. Moreover, it 
may turn out that the prophecy based upon A and B 
cannot be of any value to the teacher in the light of C. 
A stressful change in procedure, it has been demon- 
strated, will disturb, if not invalidate, the correlation 
between A and B. If the results in A are revealed in 
advance of the journey, human nature being what it is, 
there is great danger of being obtuse to the data under 
C, and also utterly blind to the possibilities of experi- 
mental teaching. 

All these complex factors under C constitute a pro- 
gramme for a study of the life basis of human activity 
and achievement. Even the theory of instinct, upon 
which an enormous amount of predication has been 
made, must now be regarded as an hypothesis. The sci- 
entist takes into account the personal equation. He, if 
he works without bias, if he guards the habit of robing 
his opinions in the livery of science, will tie up his own 
prejudices in a bundle and label it as one set of facts 
that he must consider in the creative or scientific mode 
of thinking. The difficulty and the danger of basing 
a prophecy on A above would seem to lie in a readiness 
to believe that original nature has doomed the child to 
one level of "intelligence" or another. 

The evolutionary products of the race continue to 



INITIATIVE AND AUTHORITY 255 

be transmitted, and the old argument as to whether 
heredity or environment determines more markedly the 
individual is carried on with a high degree of enthusi- 
asm by both sides of the controversy. Humanity, as a 
whole, is the organism which transmits the products of 
our human evolution. These evolutionary products are 
in the nature of language, institutions, customs, beliefs, 
methods, technics, habits, attitudes, and a thousand 
ramifications of our social organization. These products 
are not derived from parents. They contribute next 
to nothing in this social heredity. Every man is born 
a wild little animal, wholly uncivilized, susceptible of 
becoming a howling savage, whether he be a man of 
the 5th, 15th, or 20th century. It is the human world 
conceived as an organism, a scientific fact, "which makes 
him what he is and determines to what stage of evolu- 
tion he shall belong." The analogy of physiological 
heredity will hardly hold in our social heredity. 

Rights and Duties. — In the realm of political and 
civil rights, guaranteed by statute or constitution and 
affirmed by court decision, we have an apparent excep- 
tion to our general thesis. A man comes into his ma- 
jority and, through no responsible achievement of his 
own, is given the right to vote. This right or privilege 
has not been earned. With the exercise of such a right, 
there is coming now to be felt a keen sense of responsi- 
bility. One of the major functions of the secondary 
school is to bring all youth up to a fine sense of duty in 
the exercise of these guaranteed rights. The right to 
vote implies the duty to vote intelligently; the right 
to legislate carries with it the obligation to legislate 
justly. 

The right to life should be guaranteed every human 



256 DIRECTING STUDY 

being. While urging a rigorous doctrine of individual 
responsibility, it must be recognized that a man thrown 
overboard in mid-ocean has no freedom to swim to shore. 
The hurdles must not be insuperable. This is far 
from arguing that no difficulties should be encountered. 
Yet, a realizable opportunity to become a self-active, 
responsible, free-operating personality is absolutely 
essential in our form of social organization. One of 
our real problems is the building of a social mind that 
will be able to comprehend and appreciate the almost 
unimaginable resources of human potentiality and the 
vast, untouched reservoirs of possibility of the human 
spirit. Under the stimulus of our social enthusiasm a 
deliberate programme could now be projected which 
would employ available and potential scientific re- 
sources in the building of the effective individual — the 
man who could think, who would be socially minded, 
responsible, competent — the man who could be trusted 
with power. 

Every Individual Counts in Our Conception of So- 
cial Organization. — A new leaf in the book of human 
progress is being turned in the development of a 
dynamic social responsibility. The programme of 
health service now being realized in our schools is an 
expression of our philosophy of the supreme value of 
every human being. A rough analogy borrowed from 
Cooley's Social Process serves a happy purpose 
here. Social forms are compared to the wild grape- 
vine extending itself over trellises and fences and into 
trees. "The vine has received from its ancestry a 
system of tendencies. There is the vital impulse it- 
self, the bent to grow. There is its habit of sending 
out straight, rapidly growing shoots with two-branched 



INITIATIVE AND AUTHORITY 257 

tendrils at the end. These tendrils revolve slowly 
through the air, and when one touches an obstacle, as 
a wire or branch, it hooks itself about it, pulling the 
shoot up after it. A shoot which thus gets a hold 
grows rapidly and sends out more tendrils; if it fails 
to get a hold, it by and by sags down and ceases to 
grow. Thus it feels its way and has a system of be- 
havior which insures growth along the line of successful 
experiment.*"* 

The whole social fabric depends upon the growth of 
the terminal buds of evolution, human beings. With- 
out a chance to grip some obstacle (opportunity) the 
individual not only fails to pull himself up, but society 
sags just to the extent of individual failure. In apply- 
ing the rough analogy of the grape-vine, it is not only 
obvious that the new shoot pulls itself up, but by the 
co-operative pull of all the new shoots the whole com- 
plex organization of interwoven vine is lifted up. 
Strictly speaking, we do not institute our fledgling 
youth into their rich social heritage; that inheritance, 
the achievements of the past, can have significance 
only in terms of self-activity of individuals. The in- 
dividual is not a passive recipient of culture or of values 
stored up, but rather in him lies the responsibility of 
giving our racial and social values expression and sig- 
nificance. 

We are the creators of new values. The race has 
learned to walk, but that fact does not excuse the 
individual from learning to walk. The tortoise needs 
his shell. He can't discard it and hope to assemble 
scraps here and there and make one out of these parts. 
He must grow one fit to serve his needs in his environ- 

* Cooley, C, H., Social Process, p. 8 f. 



258 DIRECTING STUDY 

ment. Old institutions served their time and day. 
But to hope to use an old institution suited to other 
times with its old forms is a vain expectation. We 
have the task of creating our own institutional means 
to serve our present needs. We have got to build new 
modes of expression to fit new times. New times are 
on us. We have got to go on recreating our world and 
adjusting ourselves to new demands. The old shell 
will not serve us. The old scraps can't be patched up 
into a new cover. The old garment knit for covering 
and shelter of a bygone age will not suit us nor serve 
us in our day. The definitions of education which 
served a yesterday custom and practice will not be 
adequate for our new order. The challenge of creative 
evolution is: "If the organism needs an eye, it grows 
one." 

Freedom and Development. — The highest expression 
of freedom, as suggested above, is the "free" and 
ordered execution of the pianist, the fine technic of 
the skilled surgeon, the expression of trained and ex- 
pert ability in any direction. In the processes of 
growth and self-expression there are degrees of freedom 
attained through "try-out," through trial and suc- 
cess, through gradual and progressive experimentation. 
Moreover, freedom, except in the highly technical lines 
and specialized professions, is a function of develop- 
ment, and achievement in certain general directions 
becomes basic and functional in new pursuits. The 
child entering school, for example, has gained a mar- 
vellous freedom in oral language. Ability to use lan- 
guage, to read the printed page, is a prerequisite to 
the study of geometry, chemistry, history, etc. The 
interdependence of capacities, the unity of experience, 



INITIATIVE AND AUTHORITY 259 

as well as the variety of achievements, should be em- 
phasized. Every performance is the expression of the 
synthesis of life at that point, the resultant of all the 
forces of the organism. 

Self-Fulfilment vs. Survival Theory. — To urge the 
thesis that freedom means capacity, the release of 
potentialities through self-expression and education, 
tends to place responsibility upon man, where it prop- 
erly belongs. The tendency, so often, has been to 
shift responsibility to a place where it is borne without 
a murmur. A prodigious amount of energy, sufficient 
to produce intellectual lockjaw, is spent in getting 
capacity securely aufgehoben in the absolute. There 
is for the educator a wholesome bit of philosophy in 
the theory that improvement in power is fundamentally 
a function of exercise and effort, rather than a function 
of structure: it serves to keep alive a healthy optimism 
in education. It is a far cry from the philosophy which 
prompts the teacher to remark when the student is 
failing, "He canH learn it" to the philosophy which 
enables one to say, "He does not learn it" or, "He has 
not learned it yet." 

The whole theory of survival, a comfortable doctrine 
for those who survive, is a statement of what is, not a 
declaration of what ought to be. Can there be doubt 
any longer that tens of thousands of children are 
stunted, dwarfed, and distorted only by lack of oppor- 
tunity? Not all the deteriorate are degenerate. Na- 
ture knows no such differences in original nature as 
are revealed constantly between the fortunate and the 
unfortunate. The unfortunate, from an educational 
standpoint, are not confined to the misery class, the 
extreme poor in worldly goods. The white flag of 



260 DIRECTING STUDY 

surrender is run up by the pampered and ill-trained 
of many a home in which the financial struggle is 
hardly felt by the children. The lethargic and mori- 
bund minds are found to cut across lines of cleavage of 
social groupings. Inequality made by circumstances 
accounts in large measure for differences in school 
achievement. The hideousness and inefficiency of ex- 
isting provision for the physical, moral, social, intellec- 
tual, and, in the later teens, vocational development 
of all the children and youth of the nation must be 
pointed out and appraised in arriving at a fair judg- 
ment of the adequacy of educational opportunities. 
Absolute equality of circumstance is not desired; but 
equality of opportunity, not uniformity of condition, 
is demanded in order that each individual may develop 
to his full stature. The wholesome doctrine of self- 
completion is substituted for the doctrine of survival. 

Alternate Leaderships. — The famous shibboleth, 
"liberty, equality, and fraternity" gains a new signifi- 
cance in the view that freedom is an achievement, not 
an endowment. Individuals are never equally free in 
attainments. 

An outstanding fault of democracy thus far has been 
an impatience with trained and technical ability. A 
certain claim to omniscience is often stubbornly de- 
fended in the persistence of the Jack of all trades and 
master of none. To admit inequality in capacity 
would seem to argue that one man is not as good as 
another. All this wells up out of the low mythology 
of our political democracy. (One recalls the policy 
of President Jackson in ushering into office the intel- 
lectually disinherited.) 

To-day, with increasing specialization in skill and 



INITIATIVE AND AUTHORITY 261 

profession, our problem is to incorporate into American 
life a recognition and appreciation of alternate leader- 
ships.* 

This means, literally, that if on Sunday a man de- 
sires to have his spiritual needs ministered to, he may 
go to his church and bow before his minister; if on 
Monday he plans an investment, he ought to be able 
to go to his banker for expert advice; if on Tuesday he 
wishes to build a house, he should consult his architect; 
if on Wednesday he is in doubt about his health, he 
should call upon his physician; if on Thursday he wants 
to have a point in law settled, he should submit the 
proposition to his lawyer; if on Friday he is concerned 
about the education of his son, he might very properly 
seek the advice of the educator; if on Saturday his 
business calls for a new process of manufacturing, he 
must consult the scientist; and so on in a hundred 
clear-cut directions. 

The main purpose of the common school, including 
the high school, is to lay those broad foundations that 
will enable the common man, and the specialist, to 
know, in general, what their specialists are about. In 
an intelligent and adequate recognition and apprecia- 
tion of alternate leaderships, we are to discover the 
basis of a genius for a permanent and a scientific co- 
operation. In some such a conception a possible es- 
cape from the Nemesis of specialization is afforded, 
and at the same time a basis is laid for an understand- 
ing of life in terms of a complex system of "mutually 
interpenetrating interests." 

Certainly, provision must be made for different 

*A thesis ably worked out and popularized by President Suzzallo, 
University of Washington. 



262 DIRECTING STUDY 

modes of excellence. "Each in his own tongue" ex- 
presses, in a way, a dominant characteristic of America 
described as a "People of Action." In theory and 
practice the American is an individualist. A flat uni- 
formity, any form of equality, superimposed, would be 
secured at the expense of liberty. How to guaranty 
that individualism which our institutions, have fostered 
and at the same time engraft upon that individualism 
the genius for co-operation is one statement of the 
problem of our social order. 

Our Americanism and Education. — There has been 
in the United States a spirit of give and take, a disposi- 
tion to live and let live. The freedom of democracy, 
the spirit of tolerance and friendliness, could be ex- 
pressed with comparative ease as long as there was 
abundance of free land. Now, the frontier is a thing 
of the past. Our industrial order has introduced diffi- 
cult and serious problems of liberty. Equality of 
circumstance is not essential to democracy. Equality 
of food, of shelter, of clothing, no man wants. That 
is surely not the way out. The school is not required 
to furnish a practising ground for that conception of 
equality, in spite of much in educational practice that 
smacks of uniformity. Our education should cultivate 
those elements in our national life which have enriched 
it from the beginning. Our motto, One from Many, 
suggests the process; it is a unity created by a process 
of drawing out and recomposing the best which each 
group, race, individual, has to offer. 

The ideal is the claim of individuality as the supreme 
educational end. The highest form of democracy 
favors individual growth. In it every person would 
be free to draw from the common medium what his 



INITIATIVE AND AUTHORITY 263 

nature needs, and to enrich the common medium with 
what is most characteristic of himself. The basis is 
laid in this ideal for a shared life. The individual is 
not lost in a mystical socialistic soul; the pernicious 
theory of the "melting-pot" method of building our 
authentic Americanism is escaped. The wholesome 
and practical theory of an associated life, built upon a 
programme of interdependent relationships, affords a 
truer basis for an understanding of our American ideals 
and social organization. In the last analysis this inter- 
pretation of nationality rests upon free-operating in- 
dividuals, grown to their full stature as socially efficient 
personalities. In this conception the individual is 
priceless, and something more needs to be said about 
equality and liberty. 

A Reinterpretation of Equality. — The stirring decla- 
ration of the founders of the Republic in the proposi- 
tion that all men are created free and equal gives 
us pause. It does not help the situation materially 
to amend the proposition to read: All men are born 
free and equally ignorant. Perhaps there would be 
substantial agreement if the period is placed after the 
word born. For men are born no more free than wise 
or strong. All are born with a nervous system capable 
of unlimited development as an organism, and no pre- 
sumption is so arrogant as that which attempts to 
forecast the future of growing, developing, lazy, in- 
different boys and girls. When it is proclaimed, 
now, that the individual is free, or that all men are 
equally free, we hesitate, and begin to explain just 
what we do not mean by liberty. 

It did not require the modern psychological tech- 
nic of measurements to ascertain the fact that we are 



264 DIRECTING STUDY 

not equal in any immediate finite attainments. Some 
truths are self-evident. The disposition, however, to 
refuse to accept any modern interpretation of equality 
does not meet with ready approval. Some reinterpre- 
tation is desired. May it not be valid to hold that 
human beings are equal, as persons;* and further, that 
all normally constituted persons are potentially free? 
This would mean that children are equal, never identi- 
cal, in possibilities. It may be an extreme view to 
hold that all children are measureless in capacity; 
but it is, withal, a wholesome philosophy for the edu- 
cator to act upon. It would seem that now with the 
tools and method of modern science a way could be 
devised by which personality could be released, and 
that they who are the "captains of their own souls" 
might have a realizable opportunity of becoming the 
masters of their own fate. The schools must reckon 
with the loss of external opportunities in the passing 
of the frontier, and by deliberate procedure seek to 
develop personal power, courage, skill, ability, and 
initiative in every individual. 

Freedom vs. Caprice and License. — The caprice of 
determined ignorance is as dangerous to true liberty 
as autocratic authority exercised in the repression of 
the individual. Freedom is never idle, narrowly selfish, 
indifferent. There is no real freedom for those who 
resort to the spurious relinquishments of idleness, self- 
complacency, or asceticism. Plenty of men would 
like to have wealth, scholarship, some coveted goal of 
values, but they relinquish the effort; they stand out- 
side the ropes watching the contest. Plenty of men 

* Hudson, J. W., The College and the New America, chap. X, "The 
Meaning of America." 



INITIATIVE AND AUTHORITY 265 

stop thinking to escape the disturbance of their be- 
liefs and, by anchoring their boats in a safe and quiet 
harbor, refuse to suffer the pain of honest doubt. 
There are men, too, of ascetic disposition who retire 
from further effort after accepting or acquiring some 
accredited virtue or knowledge, even going so far as 
to give up what they have a right to in order to secure 
some supposititious effect upon character, forgetting 
that character is constantly formed and rejuvenated 
in the interactions of social life. The schoolboy, so 
frequently an artificial product, often exhibits symp- 
toms of one or another of these spurious relinquish- 
ments. He withholds the hand that would pluck the 
highest honors; he may become stubbornly self-com- 
placent through the painful process of information; 
he may reach a state when he thinks he is or has been 
"educated." These categories by no means exhaust 
the possibilities of explaining disagreements arising 
between the boy and the school. 

Freedom in Work. — It is perhaps a bold philosophy 
which enables one to hold that boys and girls are by 
nature lovers of work. In a certain large family, well 
known to the writer, the constitution was adopted, 
not always without the consent of the governed, and 
a regimen was prescribed by a real father, disillusioned 
by any easy-going plan of letting the little things 
flower out under a sentimental general indulgence. 
It was a constitution, not so much one of power and 
arbitrary authority, as it was an instrument, an hypo- 
thesis, in which power was exercised and varied at 
the discretion of the members of that institution. 

The motto which served as an ample preamble was: 
We propose to work in this home. Upon the adop- 



266 DIRECTING STUDY 

tion of that constitution there was a joyous freedom in 
work ; secession would have been treason. 

There was no blind, unthinking obedience in that 
experiment. There was no clashing of interests in the 
alternation between authority and initiative; for the 
conception of liberty in law was established on a sure 
foundation. It was no compromise between authority 
and freedom, but a splendid integration of functions. 

For those homes to-day in which the parents have 
abrogated authority and have become obedient to their 
children before the latter reach their teens, it may 
be remarked that the constitution may be adopted 
long before the child enters school. Dare one venture 
a bit of advice, aimed at all those parents and edu- 
cators who go a- tinkering with children and youth: 
adopt the constitution and stop talking about it, and 
go forward finding zest for life in the pleasure of at- 
tainment and in a joyous freedom in work. 

Paradox of Freedom and Authority. — The paradox 
of initiative and authority, of freedom and social re- 
straint is an attractive thesis. The call for initiative 
was never so urgent as it is to-day. The demand for 
freedom was never so clear and strong as it is to-day. 
On the other hand, there never was a time when ra- 
tional authority and social restraint were so absolutely 
essential to life and progress as to-day. The intelligent 
person will not fail to draw a valid distinction between 
the normal wish "to paddle one's own canoe" and a 
neurotic craving for relief from any form of social re- 
straint. 

The alternation between initiative and authority 
presents an amusing story. The young Puritan minis- 
ter in his abounding enthusiasm gave expression to a 



INITIATIVE AND AUTHORITY 267 

charming bit of philosophy when he proclaimed to 
the world: "We came to America to worship God, as 
we please, and to compel everybody else to do the same" 
A dim survival of this doctrine is exhibited to-day in 
dealing with certain social problems arising out of 
the irresponsible exercise of so-called personal-liberty 
rights. Applied to the saloon, for example, a free 
translation of the Puritan's creed might read : We pro- 
pose to be decent, as we please, and to compel every- 
body else to be the same. Or, to come at once to the 
problem of directing pupils in the path to freedom, it 
may not do violence to the spirit of those stern and 
hardy pioneers of early New England to adopt for 
every classroom the proposition: We are here, boys and 
girls, to work, as we will, and to compel everybody else 
to do the same. 

The free action of the responsible individual is never 
characterized by caprice, or license, or intolerance, 
or arrogance. Even the fine old saying, "You shall 
know the truth, and the truth shall make you free," 
is not regarded as final. Now, with the technic of 
science applied to every phase of life, it is just as 
essential to act upon the corollary of this proposition: 
you shall know the truth in order that you may not do 
as you please. Any real boy soon learns that he can- 
not do as he pleases with the applications of electricity. 
Nobody now does as he pleases about contagious 
diseases. It is a notable step in the progress of civiliza- 
tion to advance from the irresponsible, careless, in- 
different practices of a theory tainted with any form 
of selfish personal liberty — a do-as-you-please policy — 
to a straightforward, intelligent, responsible conduct 
arising out of the conception that the free man must 



268 DIRECTING STUDY 

do as he wills. This higher view carries with it a des- 
perate responsibility. Freedom of thought implies the 
responsibility of actually doing some hard, straight 
thinking. 

The professor is hardly licensed to indulge in un- 
limited monologue merely because he has worked out 
his problem more elaborately than his students. The 
schoolmaster finds it exceedingly difficult to give up 
status and an ancient habit of regarding himself as 
the law. We still hear it proclaimed that students 
can't think; that before students can think they must 
acquire certain dabs of accredited knowledge at stated 
intervals, as if we were first to collect some facts and 
then go off and do some thinking. 

The Pupil in the German System of Education. — 
Alexander, in visiting the Prussian elementary schools, 
remarks that in observing some 300 teachers at work 
not a question was asked by any pupil. The German 
teacher in the Volksschulen explained it all by saying: 
"I have said everything about the subject that the 
child needs to know. My explanations have been 
clear. What has the child to inquire about?" And 
again, if the pupils were permitted to ask questions: 
"Why, that would destroy the discipline and regular 
order of the lesson. One would never get through 
with the work planned." * 

One of the most frequent commands in the German 
Volksschulen is: "Wiederholen Sie das" (" Repeat 
that"). The pupil repeats, recites, reiterates as a re- 
cipient. The pupil is commanded to listen to what 
his teacher tells him in order that he may tell it back 
again as it is told. His general attitude is that of pas- 

* Alexander, Thomas, The Prussian Elementary Schools, p. 277. 



INITIATIVE AND AUTHORITY 269 

sive obedience, unthinking submission to authority, 
uncritical acceptance of accredited subject-matter. 
The primary emphasis is placed upon capacity to re- 
member. The instructional ideal is paramount. With 
a constant appeal to memorization and reproduction 
there can be little creative thinking. There may be a 
good deal of rationalizing in accepted beliefs and com- 
municated doctrines. Rationalizing, however, is un- 
critical and is for the most part merely a passionate 
defense of a belief already accepted by tradition or 
authority. 

The reproduction of a part of a geography lesson is 
given to indicate the method employed in the Volks- 
schulen. The method assured the results desired in 
Germany by the ruling class prior to 1914. While 
discipline is not conducted on a military basis, the 
teacher in Germany commands authority, and for the 
most part, as a representative of the state, finds mea- 
sures for the ready enforcement of commands. The 
rigidity of the German method is lodged in the control 
of subject-matter. The pupil is required to memo- 
rize what he is told. There is practically no oppor- 
tunity for creative thinking. The German method, at 
its best, does not seem to be the kind of thing for 
America to imitate. If a very considerable part of the 
authority and respect which the German teacher en- 
joys is removed, then an imitation of such a procedure 
as indicated below is barren and empty. A recitation 
lesson is presented on page 175 from an American 
schoolroom. A comparison would be illuminating. 
The latter has many of the external characteristics of 
the German method; yet with the supports of the Ger- 
man system removed, one readily appreciates the utter 



270 DIRECTING STUDY 

collapse of the procedure. Moreover, if the system 
works admirably in the realization of one type of na- 
tional ideal, it does not follow that a faithful adapta- 
tion of that system would be effective in the realization 
of a totally different type of social theory. 

Geography III Class, Fifth Year. Boys * 

Teacher. Where do we live? 

Pupil. We live in Europe. 

Teacher. What is your Fatherland? 

Pupil. Germany is my Fatherland. 

Teacher. All together — Germany is our Fatherland. 

Pupils. Germany is our Fatherland. 

Teacher. Germany is shut in by many other lands. What 
country is to the west? 

Pupil. France. 

Teacher. We shall hear something about this country to- 
day. What country are we to hear about to-day? 

Pupil. We shall hear about France to-day. 

Teacher. Once more. 

Another pupil. We shall hear about France to-day. 

Teacher. All together. 

Pupils. We shall hear about France to-day. 

Teacher. What is the name of this country? (Teacher had 
written the name on the board.) 

Pupil. France. 

Teacher. Who has ever heard of it? (Several hands were 
raised.) What have you heard ? 

Pupil. It is a republic. 

Teacher. All together — France is a republic. 

Pupils. France is a republic. 

Teacher. What is a republic? 

Pupil. A republic has no king, only a ruler. 

Teacher. Not exactly. 

Pupil. France is not ruled by a king, but by a president. 

How utterly lacking such a procedure is in a practis- 
ing ground for morality ! Doctor Foerster, Germany's 
* Alexander, Thomas, Prussian Elementary Schools, p. 445/. 



INITIATIVE AND AUTHORITY 271 

leading educator, condemned that system before the 
war. It is related that he favored the introduction of 
the best features of the English system of education 
in order that the children and youth of Germany might 
have a share in the activities of the school and, with 
Arnold, of Rugby, work toward the development of 
personal initiative and responsibility. If the school 
dwells exclusively on "deeds as done," and by repressive, 
authoritative measures dogmatically furnishes the edu- 
cational "abracadabra" — both the accredited subject- 
matter and the accredited method — the ground for 
practicing morality is cut from under the system of 
education. 

German education confused external discipline with 
self-control, regimentation with corporate spirit, and 
concerned itself with an emphasis upon the nation's 
duty in terms of "culture" (Kultur) rather than self- 
realization and character. The school system in point 
of organization did not allow the child to make his 
own associations, but had them forced upon him. 

An Example of a School Under Complete " Free- 
dom." — Unthinking obedience is not desired in a 
democracy. The difficulty in working out an integra- 
tion of freedom and law is recognized. The school- 
master, as the personification of the law, has too often 
neglected his responsibilities in the development of 
freedom. To fly to the opposite extreme and totally 
disregard law in the hope of attaining liberty is like- 
wise futile. Lyof N. Tolstoi sketches the performances 
of a school given over completely to the doctrine of 
unlimited "freedom." It is the Yasnaya Polyana 
school.* The pupils in this school sit wherever they 

* Tolstoi, Lyof N., The Long Exile, pp. 164-300. 



272 DIRECTING STUDY 

please. There is much external disorder. Under an 
unrestrained development the pupils exercise the right 
to get up and go home if they feel like it. No one, 
not even the teacher, is supposed to exercise restraint. 
Schoolboy fights are common. The employment of 
force by the teacher is thought to lack reverence for 
human nature. After disorder and the flow of animal 
spirits (unrestrained) better and more stable order 
than we imagine seems to establish itself. The in- 
triguing thing about this school is the fact that the 
pupils all want to learn and that is the only reason they 
go to school. It is reported that they have a society 
united by this single impulse to learn, and that they 
subject themselves to whatever laws they discover to 
be essential to their own well-being. 

These two extremes, one an emphasis upon authority 
to the neglect of freedom, the other an emphasis upon 
freedom to the neglect, at least, of organized law, il- 
lustrate attempts to consider authority and initiative 
as separate ideas. We shall attempt to work out a 
practical interaction or integration of these two princi- 
ples under some such conception as liberty under law, 
or liberty armed with the law. 

The Problem of the School in the Development of 
Creative Thinking. — At the Chicago meeting of the 
Department of Superintendence, 1919, the following 
appears in the resolutions: 

The schools nourished the spirit of democracy and produced 
a soldier whose initiative, resourcefulness, courage, and morale 
were the marvel of the world, etc. 

All these fine traits were exhibited by our gallant 
young men. What we should really be concerned 



INITIATIVE AND AUTHORITY 273 

about in this claim is, are we, in our schools, responsible 
for making thinking boys and girls? Do we make 
deliberate provision for training of initiative, resource- 
fulness, inventiveness? Or have we in America un- 
wittingly imitated the rigidity of modern Germanism 
in which the tendency is to sacrifice life to the majesty 
of plan and precision, and to subordinate thought to 
mechanical logic? The implied answer is that we are 
guilty in several counts in the indictment. 

In one of the splendid high schools in one of the 
three highest ranking states in the Ayer's report, the 
amazing situation disclosed in the following letter 
actually obtains in democratic America. Let this re- 
markable teacher reveal to the reader an intimate ac- 
count of her relations with a typical pedagogical com- 
mandant who stands as an exponent of the external 
mechanical type of supervision in our schools. His 
name, whether supervisor, inspector, or the modern 
efficiency expert, if not legion, is unfortunately very 
common in our democratic education. This letter de- 
picts a sharp antithesis in our educational practices 
between two irreconcilable ideals: 

Dear Mr. : 



I am in trouble and just must tell some one about it, so if 
you don't mind I'll turn to you. I've been teaching here a little 
over two weeks, English and Art, departmental work — and I've 
tried to establish a "must be," and still remember to get down 
with the pupils. We've been a prospecting party, these pupils 
and I, and we have helped each other, but we have not always 
gone in order. One day the supervisor came in when we were 
all working at the board, thirty-seven of us. One in each group 
of six was watching for mistakes in the other five instead of writ- 
ing. Lively discussions over certain mistakes were taking place 
in whispers and undertones. I was having a life-size job settling 



274 DIRECTING STUDY 

disputes and flying from group to group to urge them to maxi- 
mum endeavor. I didn't have time to talk to the principal and 
there was no orderly recitation for him to listen to; and so he 
left, soon. 

Next day he came into an art class. Two boys were working 
out a poster design in one corner on board, and, I remember, 
talking out loud. Three or four were practising printing on the 
board, and at least a dozen were gathered around me learning 
a shading stroke. Well, to make a long story short, he walked 
out. But to-day in teacher's meeting he lectured for an hour 
on discipline and order, and he looked straight at me and said: 
"I've noticed that some of you have beautiful theories of de- 
veloping individuality and using the new-fangled 'method' of 
letting the children do as they please, but I want you to under- 
stand that we can't have it in this school — we must have uni- 
form rules, etc., etc." You know what he said, and I hope you 
know my blood boiled ! He even told us absolutely not to let 
a pupil say one word without raising his hand — There is lots 
more, but you have no doubt heard this story before, so I won't 
inflict it upon you. But to-night I am heartsick. I've so in- 
corporated ideas of socialized procedure into my thinking that 

they are there to stay. Thanks to you, Mr. . I don't want 

any tombstone order in my classes, nor any "methods," but can 
I defy that man? 

Just writing this to you has given me courage to dare, even 
though I don't send this letter! Perhaps I shall send it, and 
if I do you will know that I am going to try to "keep the faith." 
I feel like a missionary in a foreign land, or a bug crawling about 
under a bottle. But I can see through the bottle, and get a vision 
of what's beyond, thank goodness ! 

This has done me much good and I hope you haven't minded. 
Very sincerely, 



The following statement (modified slightly) illumi- 
nates this practice: 

A very serious mistake is being made in both schools and 
colleges in the attempt to establish uniform standards and thus 
seem to make all pupils alike or to introduce different levels of 



INITIATIVE AND AUTHORITY 275 

group mediocrity. The startling degree of uniformity and medi- 
ocrity attained is evidence of the deadening influence of grades 
and tests. So far American Educators have shown very little 
regard for cultivating the influences which tend to strengthen 
original thinking and the formation of independent judgments 
upon intellectual subjects. Now with scientific attention paid 
to individual differences we may hope for a decided change in 
opinion in regard to the conventional standardization of think- 
ing which has been such a hindrance to progress.* 

Practices Surviving Inconsistent with our Phi- 
losophy of Life. — It remains to work out the paradox; 
for the spirit of tyranny and the spirit of freedom are 
hopelessly irreconcilable. Beating a boy one minute 
and telling him the next that he is the responsible 
master of his own destiny never did work well; it works 
much less effectively to-day than ever before. Usually 
our rewards and prizes are, in effect, inverted punish- 
ments. 

The schoolmaster has always been resourceful in 
the invention of pedagogical devils. To be sure we 
have advanced far beyond the crude methods of the 
old disciplinarian whose primary object was to keep 
school and hold the class. The appeal to-day is more 
and more coming to be based upon work, pleasure in 
achievement, zest for life. 

"The militarist ideal appeals not only to the inter- 
ested parties in the governing classes but also to in- 
competent teachers, and that is a further source of 
danger. The real educationist demands individuality 
of treatment and insight into the personal needs of 
every pupil, the militarist (the disciplinarian) demands 
nothing but regimentation and teaching by rule — the 
latter so attractive to the incompetent teacher." f 

* Paton, Human Behavior, p. 434. 

t Langdon-Davies, John, Militarism in Education, p. 106. 



276 DIRECTING STUDY 

The tired and incompetent teachers find it necessary 
to resort to methods of external discipline. For them 
the usual thing is to start with the proposition that 
order is heaven's first law. For those who desire the 
development of self-control and the corporate spirit, 
heaven's first law is work. Order follows out of the 
work spirit. 

Some safe steps have been taken in the direction of 
a fruitful socialization of procedure in which it is main- 
tained that it is more important to assist pupils toward 
freedom in holding themselves than to "hold the class" 
in order, primarily for the sake of order. 

Yet we still resort, too often, to primitive threats 
such as failure in the course, the danger of not being 
promoted, the conference hour as a means of correc- 
tion, or, as a last resort, dismissal from the class or 
school, little realizing that we do not improve teach- 
ing by dismissing pupils from the class or school. The 
particular kind of operation hastily decided upon is 
not always performed with the privacy that the exi- 
gencies of the case would seem to warrant. There is 
a persistence in the claims of the efficacy of the doc- 
trine which seems to inhere in making some recalcitrant 
boy the sacrificial goat. Some vicarious effect upon 
the group is sought in the open and direct method of 
operating on the "bad" boy. Scolding Tom before 
the class serves to reaffirm the conviction of Tom's 
father who asseverates that Tom will do anything but 
work. Tom is usually corrupted to the very roots 
through lack of home training and perhaps through 
repressive school training as well. 

The trite story of Bill and his schoolmaster may 
serve "to adorn a tale and point a moral." It was 



INITIATIVE AND AUTHORITY 277 

always open season for the schoolmaster in Bill's case. 
Bill, a "near" dunce in the estimation of the school- 
master (like Darwin, Edison, Watt, Hume, Scott, 
and a long line of illustrious men and women),* was 
conspicuously labelled with the pedagogical scarlet 
letter. On one occasion the schoolmaster yelled at 
Bill in thundering tones, saying: "Bill, you lazy boy, 
don't you know Lincoln at your age was earning his 
own living?" "Yes, I do," retorted Bill, "and at your 
age, sir, Lincoln was President of the United States." 
The subject of this chapter is, in itself, so important 
that it is felt by the author that he might be permitted 
to insert here, by way of foot-note, a letter on "Rais- 
ing Boys." It has been printed in the Wisconsin Jour- 
nal of Education. It was written as a suggestion to 
all those who go a-tinkering with this delicate problem 
of educating boys. Perhaps the privilege of the first 
personal pronoun, a privilege reserved for the preface, 
will be granted in this connection. The letter may be 
an appropriate summary of the chapter. 

Raising Boys 

In order to attain the high place of democratic freedom, all 
men and women must become self-active, responsible persons. 

There must be an instant and willing obedience, not alone to 
rightly constituted authority in home, school, and government, 
but in the daily task, whatever it is. A must be is imperative 
in every personality. 

Delayed obedience to either rightly constituted authority or 
to this must be is fatal. 

Whenever the issue is, "This thing shall or must be done," 
then there ought to be no hesitancy whatever in the decision. 

* See Swift, Mind in the Making, chap. I. The reader will find here 
a wholesome tonic and a needed antidote in facing the problem of edu- 
cating the youth of the nation. 



278 DIRECTING STUDY 

Obedience to that must not be argued. It is the instant and 
willing obedience here that gives us the very core and heart of 
the gentleman. He never talks back, he never whines, he never 
complains about the proposition "It shall be done, or it must 
be done." 

The must be in its best form arises within the person. He sees 
his duty and responds with instant and willing obedience to 
this inner mandate. This is the object of the external mandate 
of authority. It must lead to this inner response and attitude. 

To permit delay in either case is to lead to irresponsibility, 
indifference, and, ultimately, dishonesty. 

Lesson I. — If it is a matter then: "To-day the lawn must be 
mowed," or "This work must be done now," or "The studying 
of this subject must be begun regularly at 7.30," or "You may 
not go on the lake" — all such situations must not be argued; 
it is instant and willing obedience then and there that is abso- 
lutely imperative. 

To permit delay in the matter of obedience leads inevitably 
to a shirking of responsibility, to shiftless procrastination, to 
"back talk" and bickering, and all sorts of exasperating situa- 
tions. 

The other side of constructive attitudes is coming. Just now 
the foundation must be laid for the "free" execution of the 
pianist, and for that, any trained and expert ability. The home 
and the school should have Lesson I, if it is needed, very early 
and then stop talking about it. 

One time my father told me to go out and get a switch. He 
found that I had burned my boots. I was eight years old. The 
morning was bitter cold. I left the house and went into the 
barn and crawled way back in the wheat-bin. Father became 
concerned and went out and called me. I would not answer. 
When he found me I was almost frozen stiff. I was abundantly 
warm by the time I got to the house. Father whipped me all 
the way with a flexible strip of board. He did not whip me be- 
cause I burned my boots, but because I refused to answer him. 
That was a lesson I never forgot. It was always made clear 
that we were never punished except for one thing, disobedience. 
There was transfer of training in this experience not alone for 
myself in this case, where there was an obvious immediacy, 
but also for seven brothers and sisters who envisaged the experi- 



INITIATIVE AND AUTHORITY 279 

ence by the exercise of their powers of abstraction and imagina- 
tion. 

Now, the constructive work lies in freedom in work. "The 
lawn is to be mowed to-day." No debate arises on that funda- 
mental issue. We may talk about it after unqualified assent, 
*. e., after the "must be" is settled. Then it is perfectly proper 
and wholesome to go into plans about mowing the lawn, about 
what part of it may be done thus and so. Freedom in work is 
just as imperative as instant and willing assent to both the ex- 
ternal and the self-initiated mandates. 

Lesson II. — This proposition, described in Lesson I, must be 
clearly differentiated from another type of conduct. When the 
home or school asks, "Shall we do thus and so?" "Would it 
be a good plan to mow the lawn to-day?" "Would it not be 
a good idea to spend an hour a day in reading?" — all this lies 
in a totally different realm. Debate is elicited by the very na- 
ture of the question. "John, don't you think it would be a good 
plan to study chemistry next year?" or "To build a hog house 
by the barn?" All such language invites debate and reaction. 
The outcome is not the essential matter here. John is growing 
in power of self -direction if he wins in the argument on the nega- 
tive side. The adolescent needs to express himself within Les- 
son II. Parents and teachers should assist boys and girls in the 
adventure of becoming self-active, responsible men and women. 
The argument here is not mere idle talk. Youth needs many 
and varied opportunities for wholesome self-expression. Lesson 
I has been learned. Perhaps it may be necessary to recall it 
once in a great many instances while practice is being carried 
on in Lesson II. Not infrequently Lesson I is interpreted to 
mean passivity. We do not want unthinking obedience. It is 
well to study with great care the form of language employed in 
Lessons I and II. In the former the "must be" is employed; 
in the latter it is a "shall we?" or "would you like?" etc. The 
latter invites challenge, discussion, and self-expression. 

Lesson III. — I think there is still a higher realm, one that 
can be attained very early in life after the first proposition is 
settled, *. e., after the "constitution is adopted." 

When I was thirteen years old father said to me: "You may 
take the full responsibility for the crops on fifty acres." I did 
it, and I did practically all the work, too, up to harvest-time. 



280 DIRECTING STUDY 

My father was sure that I would come to him in a dilemma. 
He perhaps did not agree with me in every detail. That did 
not matter so much. Now here is a proposition which to my 
thinking is absolutely essential in the enterprise of developing 
personal power, self-initiative, self-respect, pride, self-mastery, 
independence, and that which insures a "free" execution in 
any direction, in profession, business, or skill. 

To stop with mere obedience to external mandates will not 
do any longer in our form of life. 

To fail to develop from within that sense of a must be is 
a tragedy. 

Freedom in work is the only true basis of growth. This applies 
to all sorts of work and situations, in the home, in school, on 
the farm, in factory, in profession. But it is freedom in work, 
never a disposition to delay or refuse to work, that must be made 
crystal clear. 

I do not believe in imposing any task simply for the sake of 
exacting obedience. It is unwise to provoke situations in which 
the issues of discipline are confused. The Egyptian priests spent 
hours every day watering dry sticks planted in straight rows in 
large fields. They did it to discipline themselves. We are com- 
mitted to something better. We want grain or trees planted 
there instead of dry sticks. The watering and the work then 
have a purpose beyond formal discipline and stupid routine. 

But what we have got to correct in our American life is this: 

i. "A disregard of discipline as a virtue too closely allied to 
servility." 

2. "A contempt for obedience as seeming to smack of do- 
cility." 

And while correcting our life in these two respects we must 
obviate the dilemma of unthinking obedience. "The slave has 
always been infatuated with his servilities." Our task must be 
the ordered relation of parts in a purposive whole. 



CHAPTER VIII 

SUCCESSES AND FAILURES IN SCHOOL WORK 

Theory of Success. — "In every child is the stuff of 
aristocracy. By that we mean the high potentiality 
of childhood and youth for uprise or downslide, ac- 
cording to circumstance and opportunity. A child's 
mimetic powers are tuned to the pitch prevailing in 
whatever concert-room it happens to be an occupant 
of. Its creative genius moulds its own personality on 
the model of whatever performances happen to be 
staged there" (page 217). 

In all forms of life from the lowest simple cell-life 
to the human — to the terminal buds of cosmic evolu- 
tion, in every form of life — there is first of all a dis- 
position, with characteristic habits, to grow. This is 
true of the terminal branch of the grape-vine ; it is 
true of the human sprout. Growth is insured along 
the line of successful experiment. By pruning, by 
cultivation, by fertilization, and by control of environ- 
ment certain objectives may be attained. Success is 
largely & function of e fort, of exercise, not alone a func- 
tion of structure. Hence, it is not jvhat js origina lly 
given that should be acceptecf and paid heed to, but 
rather what happens after the thing has been sub- 
jected to this and that situation, to this and that ex- 
perimental control. In short, if the organism needs an 
eye, it grows one. This view of life gains a new signif- 
icance in the realm of conscious will. 

In this statement of possibilities and outcomes the 

281 



282 DIRECTING STUDY 

educator swings out boldly under a new scientific hu- 
manism founded upon the theory of self-completion. 
The old Neo-Darwinian doctrine of the survival theory 
is useful in a social interpretation of life in which a 
mechanical conception prevails. In that theory the 
individual is a machine, a thing to be discovered and 
trained to serve ends set up by authority. A selected 
group is endowed with power to discover the partic- 
ular abilities of the common folk, train them for what 
they are fit for, and defend the status quo at all costs. 
There is another theory of society. It is the demo- 
cratic conception. Man is not a tool, an animal, a 
servant, or a machine. He counts and has absolute 
worth as an individual. Being a living, conscious, 
willing personality, he is to discover the purpose of his 
life. 

There has come a reaction from the belief in inborn heredity 
as the main factor in social evolution; it has been proved that 
social heredity, or the environment which rests on the child, 
is of far greater importance than has hitherto been realized. 
On the one hand, there is the slow evolution due to changes passed 
from parent to child through many generations, a process which 
has been responsible for the biological evolution of the animal 
kingdom; on the other hand, there is the possibility of a much 
faster social evolution due to the power to change the emotional 
environment of the children of a nation. 

The ruling class of Japan determined for their own good that 
Japan should become a commercially wealthy nation. To do 
this it was necessary to recast the whole system of education 
by suffusing it with a new spirit. 

By collectively submitting themselves with full intent to a 
new kind of social inheritance the Japanese people attained in 
less than two generations to a position which it has taken the 
principal Occidental nations centuries of stress to reach in the 
ordinary process of development.* 

* Langdon-Davies, John, Militarism in Education, p. njf. 



SUCCESSES AND FAILURES 283 

In the case of Japan it would appear that the old 
saying requires an additional word (nisi) to make it 
read Natura fecit nihil nisi (except) per saltutn* 

This new giant of Western Power entered the arena 
for a part in the competitive commercialism of the 
world when she exchanged contemplation of the stars 
of her Eastern night, her tranquillity of spirit, and a 
refined and artistic enjoyment of life for another ideal. 
Education is far more than the training of the intel- 
lect. It is also a training of the emotions to react to 
special ideals. The educator should not insist on mak- 
ing a sociological truth of the physiological doctrines 
of Darwin.f 

It is more than questionable whether, except as regards the 
stamping out of pathological taints (which are amenable to 
other remedies), eugenists, if they were given carte blanche, 
could achieve anything desirable. But the evolutionary prod- 
ucts which are dependent upon physiological heredity are alto- 
gether inconsiderable compared with those which are not de- 
pendent upon that process. There is something tragically pa- 
thetic in the zeal displayed for improving the race by the con- 
trol of physiological heredity, while at the same time the means 
by which the products of human evolution are in fact trans- 
mitted, and which are directly and easily amenable to human 
forethought and management, are under present conditions, 
and under a so-termed "system of education" of almost troglo- 
dytic crudity, abandoned to the mercy of chance, or rather stulti- 
fied and perverted to defeat the ends of evolution. 

If we are superior to our woad-painted ancestors, it is not so 
much that we~are born with higher qualities, but that we are 
born in a human environment in which the achieved results of 
rational thought have been from generation to generation handed 
down. And those very qualities which are physiological and 
hereditary are themselves correlated with conditions arising 

* "Nature has made nothing except by a leap." 
t Cooley, C. H., Social Progress. 



284 DIRECTING STUDY 

from the accumulated products of rational power and human 
control. So that even if those slight physiological modifications 
could be cultivated, while non-physiological progress was ar- 
rested through entire neglect, the improvement of those slight 
products themselves would tend to cease through the drying up 
of the source whence flow the conditions which produced them. 

The products of human evolution are not included in the 
characters which physiological heredity transmits. The human 
world in all its aspects, including every race and nation which 
exercises an influence over others, which exchanges thought, 
opinions, and knowledge, contributes arts and inventions, in- 
cluding every current estimate and conception, and every revo- 
lutionary thought, the customs, manners, and habit which are 
in vogue, the social organization which obtains, all the condi- 
tions arising out of it, the forms of government, the institutions, 
the beliefs, and above all the types and systems of ideas, the 
standards of honor and of conduct, the point of view, the norms 
of judgment, the sanctions, biases, and prejudices shaped in 
accordance with the relations and interests attaching to those 
conditions, that human environment which supplies all the con- 
tents and powers, shapes all the tendencies of every mind which 
is born and matures in its midst — that is the carrier of heredity 
in human evolution.* 

Nothing is more unfortunate than the notion now so prevalent 
that a mere acquaintance with the formal details in the technic 
of examination is sufficient guaranty that accurate information 
will be obtained. At present the disadvantage of placing too 
much confidence in methods is illustrated by the indiscriminate 
application of the so-called intelligence tests. These tests are 
often made by persons who have had no clinical experience in 
observing human nature, and they are therefore not competent 
either to select the cases in which satisfactory results can be 
obtained or to express a critical judgment upon the relative 
value of the different data. 

It is surprising how far academic psychologists without any 
accurate knowledge of the machinery concerned in the emo- 
tional adjustments will attempt to go in interpreting data gath- 
ered from intelligence tests. The penchant to stretch a fact so 

* Briffault, Robert, The Making of Humanity, p. 62 jf. 



SUCCESSES AND FAILURES 285 

far as to obliterate any trace of incompleteness in a history is a 
constant source of error.* 

The current opinion that creative genius is a quality 
reserved for God's elect, the lad o' parts, is hard to 
combat. A. Clutton-Brock f reminds us that every 
person feels he has an unrealized genius, a baffled crea- 
tive faculty which might some day surprise a stupid 
world. In every one is an unexpressed genius, and if 
only by some talisman, by some opportunity, we were 
suddenly forced to speak out the truth, we should all 
proclaim our genius without listening to each other. 
He says: "I believe in it for myself, believe that it 
does exist, not only in myself, but in all men, and the 
men of acknowledged genius are those who have found 
a technic for realizing it. I say realizing, because, 
until it is expressed in some kind of action, it does not 
fully exist; and the egos of most of us are exorbitant, 
however much we may suppress their outward mani- 
festations, because they do not succeed in getting 
themselves born. The word is never made flesh; we 
stammer and bluster with it. We seethe and simmer 
within; and though we may submit to a life of routine 
and suppression, the submission is not the whole self; it 
is imposed upon us by the struggle for life and for busi- 
ness purposes and, unknown to ourselves, the exorbi- 
tant, because unexpressed, unsatisfied ego finds a vent 
somehow and somewhere." 

It would seem to be begging the question to allege 
that genius eludes measurement, if it turns out that 
creative thinking is a possibility for all normally con- 

* Paton, Stewart, Human Behavior, p. 374. 

t A. Clutton-Brock, Atlantic Monthly, vol. 128, no. 6, p. 727, "Pooled 
Self-Esteem." 



286 DIRECTING STUDY 

stituted individuals. May we not need a new technic 
that will transcend mere rationalizing — that form of 
thinking which is concerned with a defense of a belief 
already accepted ? The essence of the scientific method 
is creative thinking. Perhaps our task in this twentieth 
century is the development of the science of human 
behavior in educational practice to the point of 
making it possible to realize genius in every normal 
person. 

These quotations are not presented for the purpose 
of rationalizing a belief already arrived at by the au- 
thor; the real purpose is to suggest a line of investiga- 
tion into a vast body of biological and sociological 
material pointing to a theory of success on the basis 
of experimentation in the direction of self-expression. 
The common belief is that a Ford car is just a Ford 
and nothing more; that it is folly to expect the trans- 
mutation of it into a Packard. The argument by an- 
alogy is full of fallacies when applied to human beings. 
It commits us again to a hopeless predestination. The 
major fact is automobility ; the individual expressions 
of it are dependent upon circumstances. Each make 
of car, each individual car, runs under its own power. 
The materials which are utilized in the making of a 
given car might have been assembled (constructed) 
in any one of a number of ways. Moreover, the com- 
mon highway is used by all the cars, each gripping 
whatever is essential in its own motion. The use- 
fulness of the car is not preordained; in fact, it is ab- 
surd to make comparisons to the effect that one car 
is more useful than another. The Ford may arrive 
ahead of its aristocratic competitor in the journey; 
it may have to pull a fine, big comrade out of the ditch. 



SUCCESSES AND FAILURES 287 

All use the common highway, and no one is disgraced 
by the presence of another. For automobility let us 
rationalize a bit, too, by substituting humanity and 
work out the relations of individuals in terms of a 
democratic order. 

The problem is not to be stated in terms of any 
standardization of mediocrity. Endless differentiation 
ought to be expected. This is not a plea for equality 
of anything save equality of opportunity for a full 
life, abundantly expressed in some direction. It is 
not a denial of the assumptions of original character- 
istic traits; it is rather a shift of emphasis over to the 
proposition that any true liberty is an achievement, 
not a donation. Whatever power (or freedom) one 
has at any time is the power (or talent) he has worked 
up to. 

We now need pediatric clinics in which normal chil- 
dren and youth may be given opportunity for a full- 
orbed development. In this new clinic the histologist, 
the psychiatrist, the psychologist, and the educator 
should work together in the quest of a scientific de- 
velopment of human powers. We ought to know now 
that it is abominably unjust to scold and punish a 
child who is in the grip of a set of defense mechanisms 
quite beyond his control for the time being. 

We shall soon be able to cope with all sorts of pro- 
tective coloration resorted to by boys and girls in their 
ways of adapting themselves to the artificial standards 
devised by schools and colleges. We ought to be able 
to institute an environment in which there could be 
the full release of all the wholesome potentialities of 
children and youth. Real guidance and direction may 
soon become a scientific achievement. It will be none 



288 DIRECTING STUDY 

the less humanistic in spirit when rationality may be 
had in dealing with human behavior. 

Empirical Pedagogy and Uncritical Philosophy. — In 
our attempts to explain the causes and conditions of 
successes and failures we are still in the Dark Ages of 
primitive pedagogy. The drag of inertia of tradition 
is nowhere so evident. 

The boy succeeds in Latin, fails in algebra, does in- 
differently well in music. Why is it so, or at all events 
apparently so ? Or, to put the situation perhaps a bit 
more clearly, why does one pupil succeed in certain 
studies, A, B, C, and another fail in them, but gets on 
in some other lines, X, Y, Z? Why does he fail so 
ignominiously in Latin but succeed in stenography? 
Is there anything to be said for the method in the lat- 
ter? 

The aristocratic method has always been based upon 
the doctrine of the " saved and lost." The old dualism 
persists. There is man and hardly-man. Lurking in 
the system somewhere has been the conception of fate 
or foreordination. The special technic by which the 
unregenerate could be saved becomes stereotyped. 
Certain channels come to be the only ways open to 
educational salvation. Favors are reserved for a se- 
lected group. This general philosophy gets into every 
phase of life. Education does not escape the blight 
of aristocratic methods. It is amusing to find teachers 
and educators in this day of the American high school 
holding opinions about special courses and pupils of 
ability not unlike a member of the High Church of 
England who on being interrogated as to the possibil- 
ity of being saved by any other route replied that 
"he would not exactly want to say that there is no 



SUCCESSES AND FAILURES 289 

other way, but," after a moment of agonizing followed 
by a lucid interval, he hastened to say, "no gentleman 
would seek any other way, don't you know." 

An attractive little book by William Hawley Smith, 
entitled The Haves and the Have Nots, represents a 
very common attitude in the schoolmaster's philoso- 
phy. It is amusing to observe the frequency of occur- 
rence of the words "those who" employed by writers 
and speakers who are toying with vocational guidance 
and school schedules. Classification has always been 
an easy way of escaping responsibility. 

If we fall back upon the theory of "gifts," upon the 
thesis of donation or endowment, insisting that power 
is solely a function of original structure, then it is that 
classification is likely to be made in advance of the 
journey. The chance for frank and honest, gradual 
and progressive experimentation is practically lost. 
The absolutists in education have always indulged in 
the habit of loose prophecy. Upon meeting difficulty, 
some hasty judgment is formed with respect to original 
nature. Thomas Edison, it is alleged, was sent home 
from school with a note: "It's no use. Tommy can't 
learn. He ain't got the apparatus." We are dealing 
with the careless, uncritical, unscientific temper of 
writers, amiable lecturers, and pedagogues, and a lot of 
"educated" folk in their attempts to appraise human 
stuff. And, moreover, we have had fifty years of Neo- 
Darwinianism — a ready acceptance of a blind evolu- 
tion mechanically driving the cosmos on to perfection. 
The dogmas of self-preservation, the will to live, the 
survival of the fittest, innate ideas, and a doctrine of 
absolutes have contributed to the confusion of knowl- 
edge about life, progress, development. 



290 DIRECTING STUDY 

As long as we are confronted with the pernicious 
belief that geniuses^are born and not made, it is ex- 
tremely difficult to develop the sounder principles of 
American life. Talent comes to be a donation, a gift, 
an endowment, a quality inherent in structure. All 
this is a survival of the old dualism expressed in vari- 
ous forms: master and slave, saved and lost, man and 
hardly-man. 

Self-Completion vs. Survival Theory. — The new 
emphasis is self-effectuation, progress, differentiation. 
Man selects a change which he wishes to have brought 
about: individual exertion under and within the new 
conditions produces the change. The selection of a 
change does not make the change. There is growth in 
the direction of successful experiment. 

The scientific method is employed in the new pro- 
cedure. We actually set out to change the direction 
of life. Man asserts his responsibility in fabricating 
controls. His hypothesis becomes a function of ac- 
tivity. The scientist's hypothesis is never an abso- 
lute. There is a problem. A way of solving it is con- 
ceived. This tentative way (and it is an ideal, and it 
is the new faith) is what we designate as an hypothe- 
sis. The hypothesis is never an absolute. He who 
examines his facts, data, acts, experiences, finds that 
he must re-define his hypothesis in terms of activity; 
otherwise the performer is a tradesman, a copyist, a 
collator. The artist and the sculptor work by the scien- 
tific method. The novice or amateur at physical science 
or statistics who appeases the mathematical sense 
with formulas does not exhaust the possibilities of the 
scientific method. It has no one mode of expression. 
There is no set of values to which the scientific atti- 



SUCCESSES AND FAILURES 291 

tude of mind may not ultimately be applied. It is 
for this reason that we are rapidly naturalizing the 
old supernatural zones which in the past have been 
accepted on the basis of authority, opinion, or blind 
faith. 

If the thesis is sound, that .improvement in power 
comes by exercise, it follows that progress under new 
and changing conditions is the central emphasis in 
education. A new responsibility is imposed. We can- 
not hide under the old shelters, the old absolutes. The 
boy does not succeed or fail because original structure 
is this or that; but every quality, talent, or power is 
an achievement, not a donation. At all events, there 
can be no improvement in power without exertion. 
The will to progress supersedes the will to live; other- 
wise how did the amoeba ever get to be anything be- 
yond itself? The hopeful scientific outlook is self- 
fulfilment through exercise. Our educational task 
is summed up in the problem of controls in the de- 
velopment of creative intelligence. What conditions 
shall be provided for the act of self -creation ? Under 
what conditions will the candidate for personality 
achieve, make progress ? Responsibility is shifted from 
some absolute and from a busy aimlessness and idle 
talk about destiny and outcomes over to man, where it 
belongs. If a boy succeeds, or seems to succeed, the 
real question is, has he been achieving somewhere near 
his maximum; if he fails, our attention must be 
directed to the conditions within which he has been 
"trying out." In either case the issue is never closed, 
whether success or failure is the apparent outcome. 

Experimental Attitude toward Teaching. — The new 
school must be a creative educational unit, frankly 



292 DIRECTING STUDY 

experimental, whose atmosphere, aim, method, and 
special contributions are so conceived and managed 
that each individual may grow to full stature. It is 
absurd to assert that any normally constituted in- 
dividual is incapable of making progress in any course 
in the curriculum. The amount of progress is an- 
other matter; also, standards and entrance conditions 
to higher schools constitute problems in themselves. 

The upshot of the matter is, we know very little 
about emerging powers and potentiality. We cannot 
by ex-cathedra methods be sure that conditions have 
been favorable for growth. What we need is a frank 
application of the experimental method. Uniformity 
of conditions and individual differences do not go to- 
gether. With some hypothesis, never an absolute, 
we need to attack the problems of learning. An edu- 
cational hypothesis, like the artist's hypothesis and 
the psychologist's and the physicist's, must lend it- 
self to a developing process; i. e., one's educational 
hypothesis must be a function of activities. It cannot 
be settled, defined, formalized. It must be a growing 
hypothesis. 

Somehow our norms in education must be inter- 
preted in functional terms. The problem of subject- 
matter in any course of instruction cannot be ade- 
quately studied apart from procedure values. The 
old views of accredited subject-matter are changing, 
just because the humanizing movement is taking root. 
Values are no longer thought to be absolute and in- 
herent. Whatever subject has been held in the past 
to be an indispenable part of the curriculum should 
not be discarded because of tradition. Such a subject 
may conceivably be ideally adapted to the new situa- 



SUCCESSES AND FAILURES 293 

tion, granting of course the validity of the functional 
basis of procedure in dealing with such a subject. A 
new interpretation of education in accord with chang- 
ing social conditions does not carry with it any man- 
date to fabricate essentially new and different cur- 
ricular matter. We shall have a clearer perspective 
on this issue once it is recognized that permanent or 
continuing processes are capable of incorporation in 
the new situations confronting society. Democracy 
progresses by the principle of extension of privilege. 
What has been reserved for a privileged or superior 
class is taken over by a developing democratic state 
and made universal. The secondary school was for- 
merly a privilege for a selected group. We are rapidly 
democratizing the high school. 

Regimentation in Educational Programmes. — We 
are now face to face with the old dualism, the old cleav- 
age between "those who" may profit by one type of 
education and "those who" may not profit by that 
type of education. In the last analysis two camps 
are pitted against each other in the attempt to in- 
augurate educational programmes involving two op- 
posing sets of ideas. It is asserted by both groups that 
success in algebra, music, etc., is determined by in- 
herent structure. If such is the case, it follows that 
some division or classification should be made. 
Broadly speaking, the cleavage runs between educa- 
tion in liberal terms for one class and in vocational 
terms for another class. The interesting aspect of 
this dilemma lies in the fact that essentially the same 
philosophy is utilized to support both contentions. 

The practical problem for one group of educators is 
to discover reliable means and methods of revealing 



294 DIRECTING STUDY 

in advance of the experiment those alleged native 
gifts or talents upon the basis of which a tentative 
classification is to be made. 

The development of psychological tests and measure- 
ments of intelligence has no doubt suggested a reliable, 
scientific procedure by which abilities may be ascer- 
tained. It is the scientific faith of a great many edu- 
cators to-day that these instruments will soon reach 
such a stage of perfection as will enable school ad- 
ministrators to enter upon a fairly definite programme 
in the classification of pupils with respect to the two 
major types of education suggested. It is held by some 
prominent educators that this cleavage may be begun 
as early as the beginning of the Junior High School, 
while others are urging a later period in which to make 
a somewhat arbitrary classification. The point of 
interest in all of this vocational venture seems to be 
the element of prophecy. The scientific method is 
being employed in the quest to work out the theory 
of inherent capacities. In other words, what has been 
accepted as an undemonstrated thesis, a plausible 
theory, is now being subjected to the scientific method, 
and as a result of the application of this new and deli- 
cate instrument, the old philosophy of educational 
predestination has been revived and intensified, not 
on the basis of any verifiable evidence, but on the 
theory that these tests are bound to become more and 
more reliable and penetrating. The "lad o' parts" is 
with us again. The "weaker vessels" are to be sorted 
out and given a special type of education. The belief 
would seem to be that man is already, or, at all events, 
that on account of his inherent structure, he is forever 
barred from becoming. In effect, man is doomed either 
to success or to failure. 



SUCCESSES AND FAILURES 295 

One may very properly urge the use of psychological 
tests for purposes of diagnosis and improvement of 
teaching. It is not essential that classification should 
be the dominant aim of tests of any sort. To hold 
that the purpose of education is the production of 
changes in individuals indicates a radical departure 
from the absolutist's programme. It means that im- 
provement of power is not a function of structure, but 
rather a function of exertion. Under this thesis man 
is not until he becomes. Man's heredity is his task. 
The emphasis is shifted from donation to achieve- 
ment. The new instrument of educational tests may 
enable the teacher to find out where a pupil is in 
a developing scheme. It will assist him in arriving at 
values; for no fact can be accepted in its baldness. 
The test is in no sense a means of determining what 
change may be produced under new controls. In brief, 
prophecy cannot be securely based upon psychological 
tests. They should enable us to select a desired change. 
The individual energizing, agonizing, working within 
the new conditions set up as controls for the purpose 
of effecting the desired change, makes the change. This 
hypothesis abandons status, and secures for education 
the hopeful and soundly scientific principle, to wit, 
our educational hypothesis is a function of activity. 

Differentiation and Classification. — The biological 
principle of differentiation may now be linked up with 
the promising psychology of individual differences. 
Instead of seeking higher degrees of uniformity with- 
in any class group, it should be the aim to emphasize 
progress within organizing principles, and to foster 
developing differentiation. No two pupils may be 
expected to do the same amount of work, or to make 



296 DIRECTING STUDY 

equal paces of progress. If rates of progress are in 
any sense determined by original nature, and con- 
ceivably such a view could be accepted as thoroughly 
sound, then it would seem to be perfectly clear that 
increasing ranges of differences should be expected in 
any working group. 

The best time to bring together a group of pupils 
for the study of any subject — geometry, science, what 
not — is an important matter, and constitutes a real 
problem in itself. We are concerned at the moment 
with the processes of development in the class or 
section group on the basis of present practices in 
programming pupils. No matter what degree of uni- 
formity of abilities may be assumed at the beginning 
of a course, an application of this functional inter- 
pretation of procedure will inevitably lead to greater 
and greater ranges of differences in powers. 

The need of tests based upon developmental proc- 
esses is evident. That is to say, tests cannot be for- 
malized, stereotyped, and settled, as absolutes, any 
more than any other educational hypothesis, if we are 
to go forward in procedures based upon life categories. 

The significance of any response cannot be deter- 
mined apart from the total situation in which the item 
of experience occurs. Any attempt to limit education 
to a mere quantitative and mathematical analysis in 
the view that fact is the correlate of science must fail; 
nor is it enough to insist upon a view of value as the 
correlate of appreciation. The application of scientific 
method should serve to enable us to evaluate results 
with increasing accuracy of judgment and also to cul- 
tivate a certain liberal temper in appraising powers of 
boys and girls. 



SUCCESSES AND FAILURES 297 

Self-Realization. — To accept the view that nothing 
significant in power is gained except by exertion is at 
least a wholesome philosophy. The attempt to modify 
controls for the purpose of assisting the pupil toward 
a sensitive responsibility in his own self-creation and 
self-realization is certainly no argument for a "soft" 
pedagogy. It puts the responsibility for progress where 
it belongs. The task of the school is a difficult one 
indeed, yet not insuperable. Some clear-cut demo- 
cratic criterion is needed. May it not be that the func- 
tion of the school is to surround each developing child 
and youth with such conditions as will enable each 
to become an excellent judge of his own developing 
powers and to find for himself through gradual, pro- 
gressive experimentation his own opportunities, not 
alone in school, but also in his life-work or occupation. 
The responsibility for progress, development, and 
occupation must be assumed by the individual. The 
extent to which the school may be utilized in the proc- 
ess of assisting boys and girls to adequate self-expres- 
sion and personal responsibility has hardly been real- 
ized or appreciated. 

There is some considerable confusion of judgment 
in drawing inferences from doubtful analogy. For 
example, in the case of line breeding for a special qual- 
ity, such as a high-milk-production herd, or a trotting 
stock, physical structure is differentiated and a po- 
tential quality is predictable. Improvement in special 
quality or power is still possible and is assured in the 
individual by exertion. Otherwise it is difficult to 
understand how any gain is made in a special trait in 
line breeding. To allege that variation in mental traits 
and capacities can be accounted for in the same way 



298 DIRECTING STUDY 

is somewhat specious. Perhaps primitive groups could 
be shown to be far below modern groups in sheer men- 
tality. That, however, is not the real issue. Our class- 
room groups are quite homogeneous in that the mem- 
bers of any given class belong to the present-day civili- 
zation. There has been, in other words, no deliberate 
experiment comparable to line breeding designed to 
produce genius in algebra, music, science, or any other 
line of general secondary education. It would seem 
logical, therefore, that we should use with great cau- 
tion arguments based upon analogies from experiments 
which first of all deal with variation in physiological 
structure. 

Again, what is required under an emergency pro- 
gramme such as war, or for that in civil-service posi- 
tions, may not be applicable in an educational pro- 
gramme. Not only should the distinction be made 
between skill and the educative process (i. e., between 
training and education), but also between the claims 
of immediate necessity and values dependent upon 
time and experimentation. The rapid mobilization of 
special skills is imperative whenever an emergency 
arises. Efficiency in factory production involves the 
same general principle. If the centre of gravity for 
youth is to be in the economic sphere, then technical 
efficiency must be placed above values. Human values 
are relegated to a subordinate role. If, however, the 
centre of gravity of the life of youth is to be found in 
an educational sphere, we shall not be driven to the 
necessity of classification and a discovery of "innate" 
or "resident" capacities. We shall have time for ex- 
perimentation. The candidate for personality will be 
given a chance to grow. His development will not 



SUCCESSES AND FAILURES 299 

be cut off by early vocational placement. What is 
revealed through tests as a weakness may be accepted 
as an evidence of immaturity. In education infants 
are to be nurtured. We find in the college individuals 
short of full-orbed development. The value of psy- 
chological tests is inestimable in diagnosis. They 
should be regarded as delicate instruments for reveal- 
ing symptoms both of healthy functioning and deteri- 
oration. Prediction of outcomes is the acid test in 
an emergency or a production programme. Prediction 
is not a major consideration in an educational situa- 
tion. We have time for experimentation and "try- 
out" in the latter. Negative results are not disastrous 
in the educative process. The important thing is prog- 
ress, growth, development — not technical efficiency. 

Moreover, standards of all sorts dealing with human 
situations are instrumental and necessary in exclud- 
ing unprepared and incompetent individuals from the 
enjoyment of certain privileges retained for those who 
have complied with the requirements of this and that 
institution, service, or profession. But it should be 
recalled that not all who comply, pass the test, or 
measure up will on that account prove competent in 
the enterprise ahead. 

Tests of all sorts test about what they test. It is 
extremely doubtful whether or not intelligence, char- 
acter, genius, "native" mentality, or potentiality is 
tested by materials dealing with restricted areas of 
academic information or social materials which are 
unequally shared by any group. The technic or meth- 
ods by which such a fundamental quality as genius 
or intelligence may be realized may be lacking. Unless 
these qualities of the human find a way for expressing 



300 DIRECTING STUDY 

themselves, they are not grown, developed, or realized. 

" The written part of the examination (or test) can 
only deal successfully with that part of it which is 
destined to be forgotten as soon as it has served its 
purpose, and it can tell us next to nothing of what is 
to remain as a possession forever," says Burnet in 
Higher Education and the War, and "culture" means 
"activity of thought, and receptiveness to beauty, and 
humane feeling," and it exactly covers that vital part 
of education which cannot be tested by the ordinary 
written examination or test. 

Frankly, the thesis defended here would operate to 
avoid the blight of specialization in the high school. 
The main lines of secondary education are conceived 
to be general in character. The entire body of the 
youth of the nation should be given solid contact with 
the essential modes of secondary education as a part 
of common-school education. The underlying prin- 
ciples are included within six or seven cores: English, 
mathematics, science (agriculture included), history 
(social studies), language (stenography as well as 
Latin), constructive arts. All normally constituted 
adolescents are capable of making evident progress in 
all of these fields. It is, in our view, absurd to allege 
that any boy or girl is biologically unfit to succeed in 
any legitimate work of any one of these six major lines 
of secondary education. The four fundamental social 
arts in early elementary education — reading, writing, 
arithmetic, drawing — are the basic social arts for all 
children. No one presumes to select those who have 
capacity to succeed in the use of words applied to read- 
ing. Similarly, the writer entertains the view that no 
pupil is inherently incapacitated to learn algebra, 



SUCCESSES AND FAILURES 301 

shorthand, chemistry, etc., in the secondary school. 
It is mainly a question of assisting the pupil toward 
a sensitive responsibility of his own task of self-mas- 
tery. 

What is recorded as failure is, on the whole, evidence 
of ineffective social controls and individual intellectual 
flabbiness, both of which may be successfully met, as 
a general proposition, when we square our educational 
philosophy with our new categories of science in terms 
of function, development, experiment — in brief, the 
will to progress — and then give attention to procedure 
values that level up to this modern philosophy of 
American life. 

Practical Aspects of Educational Theories. — It may 
not smack of the cold, impersonal, objective side of 
science to urge the psychology of practical human rela- 
tions. No father is reconciled to any classification of 
his progeny in the C group. The educator who insists 
that he would gladly accept the programme for his 
own son can insist vigorously so long as he knows his 
son falls in the A division. Self-preservation — the 
survival of the fittest — has always been a comfortable 
doctrine for those who prosper, be it remembered. 
The modern schoolmaster with his up-to-date devices 
and his I. Q.'s (Intelligence Quotients), by which pupils 
are sorted out and placed in their respective "exhibits," 
is repeating a sad chapter in the history of education. 
The schoolmaster is not immune from our human 
psychology. Let him predetermine a "mentally de- 
layed" lad by placing him in the inferior section and 
it becomes exceedingly difficult to refrain from prov- 
ing an alibi in that boy's dilemma. In fact, the boy 
himself is not slow in sensing his position and he too 



302 DIRECTING STUDY 

proves an alibi. The schoolmaster has always been 
able to get just about what he expects from his pupils. 
The C pupil soon responds on the level of expectation. 
The absolutist readily finds material to satisfy his 
formula. His formula, x -\- y = z, is a ready-made 
scheme. His materials are fashioned to fit the formula. 
For the pragmatist, the humanist variety, any such 
formula is conceived as an hypothesis, x and y for 
him are naked creatures and must be reclothed with 
every use. The future is not closed in this latter view. 
There is room for experimentation, for trial, and suc- 
cess, for tentative judging and frequent revision of 
opinion. 

The practical side of this discussion is obvious. 
Hasty judgment on what a boy is, not what he may 
become by exertion, is a schoolmastering trait sadly 
overdeveloped. The wholesome philosophy of link- 
ing up a faith in developing powers with human psy- 
chology in dealing with folks is soundly based in the 
fundamental principles of American life. The respon- 
sibility for results is definitely shifted from absolutes, 
supernatural and beyond man's power to control, over 
to man, where it belongs. Responsibility for changing 
the direction of the current of life is transferred from 
a blind evolution, mechanically driven on to perfection, 
over to man made sensitive to his share in the co-opera- 
tive drive to change human nature and to harness the 
brute forces of the cosmos in the interest of man; for 
we live in a world of changes and developments, not a 
world of absolutes. It is after all essential, yea im- 
perative, in a real democracy to recognize the supreme 
worth of every individual. Each must be given a fair 
chance to grow; each must be taught to win by achieve- 



SUCCESSES AND FAILURES 303 

ment freedom and power in the direction desired. The 
scientific method is indispensable in any sane realiza- 
tion of a procedure to this end. The practical signif- 
icance of having a hopeful people, confident in their ability 
to change the direction of forces, confident in their ability 
to overcome difficulties and to find a solution of their prob- 
lems, can be urged with perfect scientific composure in 
the profession of education. 

Differentiation vs. Group Mediocrity. — By placing 
the emphasis upon progress through achievement the 
way is open for developing differentiation. The low 
mythology of uniformity, or of conformity or medi- 
ocrity for that, no matter on what level conceived, is 
no longer entertained. In the game of life there will 
be ample room for "each in his own tongue " and also 
for the genius of co-operation. We shall expect emerg- 
ing qualities of leadership, courage, power, and initia- 
tive out of the striving of all with each energizing to 
his maximum. A recognition of superior merit is a 
democratic possibility even after status has disap- 
peared in education. The spirit of good sportsmanship 
in athletics is illustrative of the attitude to be taken 
toward education without status. In the contest there 
is the element of winning the score; but there is also 
good fellowship and fair play. There is consensus of 
judgment and good feeling accorded the star players. 
And, moreover, the keenest sensing of values in a real 
contest falls to the one who all but wins the honors, 
the second man. The lowest man in the running is 
hardly scandalized by his position in the final score. 

Democracy, rationally organized, must take into 
account trained and technical abilities with which the 
"common man," so called, has been somewhat im- 



304 DIRECTING STUDY 

patient. Discrimination in the selection of exponents 
of the common good is to-day sadly neglected. It 
should be a matter of general knowledge that extension 
of privilege does not result in levelling society. On 
the contrary, even greater ranges of individual dif- 
ferences should be expected by increasing the number 
of those who may enter the game with a fair chance 
of improving power by exercise. Moreover, when 
every ability or potentiality is guaranteed an oppor- 
tunity for full self-expression, the common elevation 
may be appreciably raised and also new mountain 
peaks discovered. Here again we have life's categories 
interpreted in terms of growing, changing hypotheses, 
not in absolutes. 

Equal amounts of progress are not to be expected 
in any class group where every person is developing 
at his own best rate. One thing needed now is a gen- 
eral levelling-up that will insure creative thinking in 
American life. A general schooling short of the 6th 
grade is hardly adequate in coping with twentieth- 
century problems. There need be no anxiety con- 
cerning leadership in the adoption of an educational 
programme intended to secure universal secondary 
education. It is not important that all should succeed 
in the same way or to anything like the same degree 
in the essential principles of secondary work. The lazy 
fallacy that uniformity would be imposed by such an 
extension of privilege is a part of the low mythology 
of the old political notions of democracy. In the view 
of the thesis suggested in these remarks "Man is not 
created" exactly: rather, "Man creates himself by 
his own activity." Hence, our earlier conceptions of 
equality are insufficient in the new social order. In- 



SUCCESSES AND FAILURES 305 

evitably merit earned in the sweat of man's brow must 
be the criterion by which to judge human values. The 
horizon of achievement is extended by virtue of the 
fact that no upper limit is set for any individual. Per- 
haps it will become increasingly difficult to differentiate 
conspicuous service as well as capacity, but one thing 
is pretty certain: if we can delete the ancient dogma 
of rights, absolute and inherent, and frankly accept 
a new working hypothesis, to the effect that man 
must be everlastingly achieving his freedom, ever- 
lastingly improving his powers by exertion, and ever- 
lastingly growing his personality, it is reasonably sound 
argument, it would appear, to urge that social dis- 
crimination can be cultivated and that society can be 
carried forward in the processes of organization toward 
clearer recognition of trained and technical ability in 
the promotion of the common good. 

The institutional schoolmaster has always been re- 
sourceful in devising methods by which he could dis- 
tinguish successes and failures. To be sure, he found 
difficulties in dealing with pupils who moved about in 
the twilight zone between "failing" and "passing." 
Often the means employed to locate the doubtful vic- 
tim on one side of the academic dead-line or the other 
have been ridiculous. Some great man has said that 
he pursued the multiplication tables without over- 
taking them. It would no doubt be embarrassing to 
many a pedagogue to meet his pupils forty years after 
he had separated the sheep from the goats on the basis 
of current school standards. 

Sensing a New Direction. — The shift of emphasis 
from the conception of successes and failures to the 
conception of progress and changes in human nature 



306 DIRECTING STUDY 

in the educative process obviates the apparent neces- 
sity of making this exasperating cleavage between 
pupils. It could easily be shown that many pupils 
marked failures have made greater relative progress 
than others who have received the pedagogical bene- 
diction. The new school and the new teacher will be 
concerned less with standards and infinitely more with 
growth and development. The new teacher will be 
interested in the creation of a certain type of individual 
— an individual who is making progress in rational 
thinking and in the development of social-mindedness. 
We must be prepared to meet the objection that 
scholarship will perish from the face of the earth if 
we undertake the democratic task of bringing about 
conditions that will make it possible for the breezes 
of science, art, and poetry to fan the brow of the com- 
mon man. Yet "temptations to excellence" may not 
disappear in the new conception of the individual. 
We can have a large scientific faith in human nature 
and at the same time enhance the meaning of intrinsic 
scholarship. Perhaps we shall find it imperative to 
reconsider the elements and character of accredited 
forms of scholarship. In the past status has dictated 
the terms and conditions of scholarship. The stand- 
ards have been too narrow and exclusive, if not arti- 
ficial and dogmatic. It has been thought that a su- 
perior class, a chosen few only, could succeed in the 
"hard" studies. Somehow the defenders of the status 
quo, the absolutists in education, have arrived at the 
conviction that folks are doomed from the beginning 
to success or failure. That we still have different de- 
grees of success no one will take issue. Up out of the 
striving of all will come our emerging leaderships on 



SUCCESSES AND FAILURES 307 

the new basis of a "live-and-let-live" programme in a 
world of mutually shared interests. Each will still be 
an individualist in the best sense and withal differen- 
tiated, i. e. f individualized, as a social being without 
destroying the genius for co-operation.* 

The technic is yet to be worked out. Surely the 
antiquated lesson-hearing school with its dogmas of 
acceptance must give way to the thought-provoking 
school with its zest for true living. The educational 
psychologist and the new teacher have a large part 
to play in the remaking of our schools. The new 
general method will no doubt find its dynamic in the 
spirit of science. The new culture must start with a 
new conception of the individual, a new faith in hu- 
man nature based upon the presupposition that changes 
in man and society can be produced. The main pre- 
occupation of youth, as well as children, is growth and 
development. By placing the centre of gravity of the 
life of youth in an educational sphere, rather than in 
the economic sphere, we shall be able to create a new 
and hopeful attitude toward human values and the 
potentialities of youth. 

* For a mastedjfcpresentation of the issue of " Pedagogical Determin- 
ism; or, Democracy and the I. Q.," see Bagley, School and Society, 
April 8, 1922. 



CHAPTER IX 

A SHIFT OF EMPHASIS - 

The Task. — The supreme task of the teacher is to 
stimulate and guide mental life. It is idle to talk about 
being a student without study, without whole-hearted 
concentration of energy to one's work. There is no 
easy road to mastery. In the last analysis it must be 
made clear to the pupil that he is responsible for the 
use of his powers in a learning situation. We, as 
teachers, need to recognize the primacy of the living 
variety of experience and seek to develop an atmos- 
phere in which each individual may rise to the full 
measure of his possibilities. The essential matter lies 
in the development of an environment in which the 
conscious will may be impelled to embark upon new 
adventures with energy and purpose. The problem is 
to plan and fabricate controls which grip the imagi- 
nation of pupils and which evoke sincere responses. 
Whatever proves to be instrumental in the release of 
potentialities gains significance in this view. 

Basis of Action. — A philosophy of education is im- 
perative; some philosophy of life is always accepted 
either implicitly or explicitly. The whole educational 
situation is colored by the theory of mind represented 
or misrepresented in current discussion. The extent 
of corruption of youth through the spread of soft peda- 
gogy can hardly be overestimated. The nerve of 
effort-making capacity is cut by a constant misrepre- 

308 



A SHIFT OF EMPHASIS 309 

sentation of human potentiality. There is a wide- 
spread belief in the doctrine of original capacity. 
Many a pupil, finding difficulty in some "hard" study, 
is reminded that he is motor or executive minded and, 
on that account, unfit for the pursuit of things intel- 
lectual or abstract. Teachers and parents are prone 
to entertain some popular fancy about genius, talent, 
or native endowment. In the more or less pervasive 
acceptance of a kind of dogma of educational Calvin- 
ism the ideal achieving capacity suffers lamentably. 
It is perfectly obvious, however, that a blind faith in 
the ability of every individual to rise to a level of sur- 
passing excellence is an obstacle in the development 
of a sound professional spirit in education. On the 
other hand, teachers to-day would welcome a new 
emphasis on determination on the part of pupils to 
see it through. They might well maintain that teach- 
ing is a mode of arousing boys and girls to say in count- 
less ways / can, I must, I will. 

Again, if the mind is simply to be trained by means 
of certain traditional studies, if the emphasis is placed 
upon a formal mechanical discipline, the tendency too 
frequently is to foster the memorizing school. Reci- 
tation and reiteration of accredited subject-matter 
may readily come to be the essential modes of expres- 
sion. Or, if the mind is conceived to be a kind of re- 
ceptacle to be filled with "contents" (information) or 
an instrument or mechanism in which certain bonds 
are to be fixed, the emphasis is still on the lesson- 
assigning and lesson-hearing school. An enormous 
amount of testing the retentive capacity of pupils is 
done. All this reflects a well-defined theory of edu- 
cation. The painful process of information is still 



310 DIRECTING STUDY 

conducted with vigor and devotion under certain 
theories of mind-training. 

A totally different approach is suggested in the view 
that real education begins at the point of difficulty or 
crisis. The problem-solving school is envisaged. The 
past, and by the past is meant experience in all its 
forms — knowledge, information, theories, principles, 
methods — all of these things can only furnish man's 
intelligence with material to organize, systematize, 
and order for the purpose of setting up some point of 
departure for the will to embark upon. To use a 
Dewey statement, education must deal with a con- 
tinuous reconstruction of experience. There never 
can be too much information, too much theory, or 
acquaintance with "dangerous" methods, if all such 
experience is used as a basis for reconstruction in fac- 
ing the new situation. Intelligence is, in a real sense, 
a lamp throwing perhaps a bit of light forward; but 
the next step for the teacher is always out on the frontier 
of educational civilization. Teaching is essentially an 
art. The conscious will equipped with scholarship, 
theory, experience, method (intelligence, in short), 
moves forward, not by chart and compass, but rather 
by taking the moral hazard. This is the significance 
of a shift of emphasis from accredited sanctions in 
terms of subject-matter and methods over to real boys 
and girls at work in a procedure in which directing 
action through control of environment is the primary 
emphasis. 

Search for a Constant. — The habit of looking for 
some infallible, safe guide must be examined in this 
connection. To transfer attention to boys and girls 
at work means a study of human situations. 



A SHIFT OF EMPHASIS 311 

A human situation is so vast, so many-sided, so complex that 
no scientific solution, no group of scientific principles, is quite 
far-reaching enough to cover it. Such bits or aspects of it as 
we may abstract from the whole and consider apart are a mere 
inconsiderable fragment of the total issue of which the roots are 
in Tophet and the branches among the stars. 

What we abstract in some fragmentary aspect is thrown back 
as a bit of new leaven into the boiling ferment of mysterious 
forces that are at work. 

A pleasing fancy, too long indulged, bids us hope that the 
ebullition will cease the instant that science is cast on the flood. 
But experience teaches that science, thus introduced, joins the 
turmoil instead of calming it, or gives new vigor to the gods 
who trouble the waters and raise the wind.* 

Science in that sense can never capture the essential 
fact of life. May we not frankly recognize the fact 
that a science of teaching on those terms is impos- 
sible? Neither history, regarded as a means of pre- 
dicting the future on the basis of repetition of events, 
nor science, as applied to inanimate things or to forces 
undifferentiated by conscious will, can be relied upon 
in dealing with those shy facts in human situations. 
The notion is deeply rooted that somehow the secret 
which holds the solution to human reaction may be 
disclosed. The search for a constant is a diligent one, 
in spite of the fact that the self-conscious Will escapes 
formulas and overflows definitions. This is one side 
of the shield. 

There is another emphasis in modern science that 
throws light on our quest. Vital history, as well as 
modern science, teaches us that we live in a world of 
changes and development, not in a world of absolutes. 

Change, in short, is no longer looked upon as a fall from grace, 
as a lapse from reality, or a sign of imperfection of Being. Mod- 
* Jacks, L. P., Alchemy of Thought, p. 239. 



312 DIRECTING STUDY 

ern science no longer tries to find some fixed form or essence 
behind each process of change. Rather, the experimental 
method tries to break down apparent fixities and to induce 
changes. The form that remains unchanged to sense, the form 
of seed or tree, is regarded not as the key to knowledge of the 
thing, but as a wall, an obstruction to be broken down. Con- 
sequently the scientific man experiments with this and that 
agency applied to this and that condition until' something begins 
to happen, until, as we say, there is something doing. He as- 
sumes that there is change going on all the time, that there is 
movement within each thing in seeming repose, and that since 
the process is veiled from perception the way to know it is to 
bring the thing into novel circumstances until changes become 
evident. In short, the thing which is to be accepted and paid 
heed to is not what is originally given, but that which emerges 
after the thing has been set under a great variety of circum- 
stances in order to see how it behaves.* 

If this is a fair expression of the scientific temper, 
then we shall have no difficulty in conceiving the pos- 
sibility of applying the spirit of modern science to 
every phase of modern life. The artist works along 
this line. He sets up his ideal, his goal, or may we 
not say some hypothesis, examines his data, tests his 
procedure by the effects of his action, and redefines 
his ideal in terms of his work. The experimental 
method is rich in suggestion and possibility for the 
emancipated teacher. 

A curious contempt for individuality has developed 
in recent years. The supervisor, not infrequently, 
looks upon the teacher as a part of the system, em- 
ployed to carry out orders from above. Undue im- 
portance is attached to covering the ground and mak- 
ing sure that everybody in grade so and so shall have 
arrived on schedule time in a given course of instruc- 

* Dewey, Reconstruction in Philosophy, p. 113. 



A SHIFT OF EMPHASIS 313 

tion at a predetermined goal. It is all a part of an 
emphasis upon the ideal of organization. Life may be 
sacrificed to the majesty of plan and precision even in 
our form of social organization. The excuse is offered 
that our teachers are without experience and that 
they must be given explicit direction in great detail. 
It is another expression of status and a mechanical 
theory of education. May we not insist again that 
it is only as the teacher actually reconstructs all external 
orders, courses of study, methods handed down, that 
any vital teaching becomes possible? That is pre- 
cisely what the successful teacher has always done. 
He must soak the conclusions, the methods, the in- 
formation of others in the dye- vat of his own mental 
laboratory, if he would teach in any true sense. More- 
over, the school conceived as a laboratory provides, in 
itself, an opportunity for self-expression of both teacher 
and pupils. It is not enough to say that our teachers 
could be trusted with a large measure of initiative and 
personal responsibility, if they were only equal to the 
task; the situation is not improved by denying or 
limiting the opportunity for the exercise of respon- 
sible freedom. Directing study requires it in increas- 
ing measure. Arbitrary and dogmatic rules of gui- 
dance in a human situation cannot be laid down and 
carried out in any impersonal manner. 

Two views of science have been sharply contrasted. 
The exact, quantitative, objective, verifiable, self- 
eliminating science may be employed, now and again, 
for the purpose of raising problems for further inves- 
tigation. In so far as careful study is provoked this 
type of analysis is wholly legitimate. It does not 
furnish a constant which enables one to make pre- 



314 DIRECTING STUDY 

diction in meeting new human situations. The other 
conception of science, the experimental method of 
modern science, is accepted as the basis for a new gen- 
eral method. The teacher is dealing with changes in 
boys and girls. Directing study aims to introduce 
controls and to bring about novel circumstances in 
order that we may study behavior and see how learners 
react. 

Purpose of a Formula in the Educative Process. — 
The statistical method, the examination, the standard 
test, or any other form of tool used in diagnosis should 
be conceived, not as a finality, but as a means in 
clarifying some aspect of a situation prior to raising 
productive questions about the thing examined. In 
applying the methods of exact science, we need to be 
reminded that a popular fallacy prevails concerning 
the certainties of statements backed up by cold figures. 
Statisticians are not always right simply because their 
figures are correct. What the teacher insists upon 
knowing is whether the figures are being rightly ap- 
plied to the argument. The human situation is ex- 
traordinarily complex and is covered by no definition 
or formula. 

Furthermore, these external methods and ready- 
made devices should be employed, not once, but many 
times. Longer periods of time ought to be laid out 
within which a given test or tool may be utilized in 
the examination of the data to which it is applied. 
The habit of drawing inferences from a single applica- 
tion of some method or test is a species of modern dog- 
matism parading in the '"livery of science." No form 
of thinking requires more careful checking upon in- 
ferences than the deductions which are made upon the 



A SHIFT OF EMPHASIS , 315 

application of the tools of science to the solution of 
human situations. 

If some accurate record of a thoroughgoing test of 
the ability or intelligence of ioo children in some 
school year, the 3d grade, say, or 9th grade, could 
be made, and then an accurate history of these same 
individuals could be made available for some years 
thereafter, the reliability of the tests themselves could 
be examined with a high degree of scientific accuracy. 
And again, if a group of children could be selected and 
rated as to their capacities and then subjected to a 
rigorous #nd sympathetic type of education under 
deliberate controls designed to release every potential- 
ity of every individual of the group, would it nut be 
possible to conceive outcomes of a character enor- 
mously different from the customary remarks one hears 
about young people in the making and what they may 
and may not be good for? All of this, to be sure, is 
hypothetical and perhaps too remote for practical 
consideration. The complexity of the problem, how- 
ever, is suggested. It is extremely difficult to forecast 
what any normally constituted child may achieve 
under conditions conducive to growth and self-expres- 
sion. 

In Table I is represented a distribution scheme to 
indicate the positions pupils take in two successive 
situations. Each pupil in the study is designated by 
a number. 

Reading from left to right, go is in group A, 12 in 
group B, etc. 

Reading from top down, go is in the third quartile, 
12 in the second, etc. 

A, B, C stand for a division of pupils in one set of 



316 



DIRECTING STUDY 



B 



TABLE I 
2 3 



I, 20, 3 


5, 17, 9 


90, 24 


13 


26, 75. 85 


56,45 


64,34 




2, 31, 56 


37,5o 


etc. 




27, 82, 60 


30 






33, 52, 63 


etc. 






etc. 










6, 7, 18 


29,48 




19, 57, 10 


38, 29, 14 


etc. 


55,6i 


etc. 


7o, 75. 86 

72 

etc. 




etc. 


23, 47, 59 


95,i5 


99,86 




etc. 


43, 35, 9i 


21, 32, 40 


103, 16 




etc. 


88, 101 

95, 77, 73 
etc. 


etc. 



circumstances — a semester, year, grade, or course of 
instruction. 

1, 2, 3, 4 stand for a division of the same pupils in 
a subsequent situation in which comparisons are made. 

A and 1 are the highest 3d and 4th respectively in 
the divisions made. 

A descriptive account showing a possible use of this 
scheme of making comparisons follows: 

An example of what seemed to be a fruitful form of 
study based upon a statistical inquiry consisted in an 
examination, for three consecutive years, of the school 
marks which pupils in a large city made in the 8th 
grade and in the first year of the high school. Marks 
were distributed in a percentage array and given a 
tertile division for the 8 th grade both for the general 



A SHIFT OF EMPHASIS 317 

average and for particular studies in the case of those 
closely related in this two-year period. Each ward 
school was listed separately and the pupils were ac- 
counted for in the 9th grade. For the high school 
the marks were distributed into three pass marks (1, 
2, 3) and a failure mark (4). A chart was used in- 
dicating the position the pupil held in the 8 th grade 
and the position he earned in the 9th grade. Each 
pupil was designated by a number. The chart con- 
tained twelve squares, three one way, four the other. 
If a pupil was found in the highest third of the 8th 
grade, and also in the group of those passing with the 
highest mark in the 9 th grade, there was a high degree 
of correlation, likewise for the pupil in the second tertile 
in the 8 th grade who fell into the second pass group in 
the 9th grade. If the numbers banked above the diag- 
onal of squares containing "perfect" correlations or 
below, it indicated clearly the relative positions which 
the pupils were taking. Those pupils who gained or 
lost one or more positions could be readily located. 

This study, when first presented to some thirty ward- 
school principals and supervisors, provoked interest- 
ing comment. All sorts of explanations were offered 
in the case of the desirable and undesirable positions 
in the chart. Ward school A, it was confidently as- 
serted, always sent to the high school bright pupils, 
well prepared. "Nobody ever got on well from school 
M." "A poor showing from school X was due to lack 
of city supervision," etc. The next year the same type 
of study was made. School A did not make as good 
a showing as school M. School X did remarkably 
well. The same principals and supervisors were not 
nearly so sure of their footing as they were the previous 



318 DIRECTING STUDY 

year. When the third year's study was presented, no 
one in the group was bold enough to venture an opin- 
ion in explanation of the results. 

This type of continuous analysis by a statistical 
method seemed to be productive in that city. It af- 
forded a basis for careful investigation of the facts 
and served to develop a wholesome tolerance. It gave 
some school principals a basis for new courage and 
enthusiasm when it was revealed to the entire super- 
visory staff that mere opinion and uncritical tradition 
could not be trusted. The value of the study was not 
found in the facts disclosed, hut rather in the development 
of new attitudes and new methods in supervision as well 
as in teaching. It was not maintained by the high 
school that a particular ward school was doing poor 
work simply because a low rating was made by its 
pupils in a single year. There was cultivated the dis- 
position to wait on experiment and new data. By 
such a continuous study, hinged about a very simple 
bit of statistical analysis, the fact of a considerable 
mobility of position among the schools was noted. 
No single constant was revealed such as "School A 
always sends on to the high school pupils of high abil- 
ity and splendid preparation." 

The tool, the formula of science, the x plus y equals 
s, is in constant need of new clothes. The constant in 
the formula is its persistent nakedness and insistent 
demand for new apparel for every occasion. The for- 
mula must be reclothed with every use. The refinement 
of technic calls for a modification of the formula it- 
self. That is, by the way, the issue of evolutionism vs. 
absolutism. The real question has turned upon the 
evolution of form or type. With the scientific tool 



A SHIFT OF EMPHASIS 319 

the scientific mind is able to attack the process veiled 
from perception, and to abstract some aspect of the 
situation, thereby preparing the way for raising all 
sorts of questions concerning the nature of the thing 
under examination. What is disclosed calls for further 
inquiry. It is rather difficult to consider the matter 
closed as long as life is there. 

The tools of the exact sciences are to be used in the 
analysis of conditions. The prospector in his search 
for precious ores uses his tools in this and that situa- 
tion. He must examine the results of his efforts. Not 
all the "diggings" yield gold. Many a lead is aban- 
doned after patient investigation. There is no guar- 
anty of certitude merely in the fact that reliable tools 
are employed. 

Scientific Humanism. — The practice of medicine 
furnishes the educator a fruitful analogy. The phy- 
sician manages his case by employing both science and 
art. He has at his command the tools of modern med- 
ical science. The physician is, first of all, a diagnosti- 
cian. He examines, analyzes, tests for certain reac- 
tions, and then prescribes treatment. The develop- 
ment of new symptoms calls for extended analysis of 
conditions and a modification of treatment; perhaps 
a consulting expert is called in. Now and again there 
is a differentiation of functions. One physician be- 
comes a skilled diagnostician. The treatment is turned 
over to a group of doctors and nurses skilled in their 
special work. It is significant to the educator to note 
the fact that the physician adopts the experimental 
method. He modifies the treatment in terms of the 
reaction of his patient. There is no disposition to dis- 
miss the case if recovery is not evident upon first treat- 



320 DIRECTING STUDY 

ment. The patient is not reminded that he is hope- 
less nor made to feel that he cannot recover. Respon- 
sibility is assumed. If a serious condition develops, 
the physician is there; no spurious excuses are offered. 
Out of a spirit of service, essentially that, he will stay 
with his case even unto death. There is in all this a 
beautiful blending of science and humanism. 

Moreover, while it may be misleading to try to esti- 
mate the relative significance of the science and art 
of medical practice in general, yet it is, perhaps, a 
suggestive departure for educational practice. It is 
no depreciation of the science of medicine to discover 
that in the practice of medicine it is only about 10 
per cent science and 90 per cent art. The part that is 
science is tremendously significant and far-reaching. 
The art side is likewise significant. It has been urged 
that certain forms of treatment by means of electrical 
appliances are of no avail unless the patient wants to 
recover, and with the desire to recover an active effort 
to respond to treatment is imperative. When it comes 
to the case of John Smith sick as to scarlet fever, the 
task of medicine at that juncture is not so much to 
find a cure for scarlet fever as it is to cure this par- 
ticular individual sick as to this particular ailment. 
The field of preventive medicine is fully recognized. 
There may be demonstrable scientific procedures in 
education of comparable sort. It would be absurd to 
disregard any fairly well-established procedure merely 
for the sake of novelty. 

The inferences are numerous from the analogy of 
medicine. We frequently hear it said, "Now that 
education is about to become scientific," as medicine 
is, etc. And it is a tremendously significant factor in 



A SHIFT OF EMPHASIS 321 

educational redirection if it could be demonstrated 
that even 5 per cent or 1 per cent of our task could 
be approached with definite and reliable scientific 
tools. We should then have a delicate instrument by 
which analysis and diagnosis could be initiated and 
by which problems could be disclosed and defined for 
further investigation. The human situation would 
still call for a vast amount of art. It is not to be ex- 
pected that the whole of life, or a considerable part 
of life, will ever be reduced to a quantitative, self- 
eliminating basis. 

If we concede, however, the far-reaching importance 
of the effect of science upon medicine, even though 
there are still vast areas untouched and unconquered 
(the respiratory diseases, for example), we shall be in 
a position to appreciate the significance of the begin- 
nings made in scientific education, no matter how 
meagre they may be. The lesson that we ought to 
learn is perfectly clear. The new teacher will be less 
a trainer of the mind and far more a diagnostician and 
a director. He will be prepared to make such analysis 
as is possible with our modern tools. He will examine, 
test by controlled experiment, prescribe treatment, 
and by careful checking of results he will not fail to 
modify treatment in terms of the reaction of Ms cases. 
He will be alert to changing conditions, to new symp- 
toms, and improvement. A faithful application of the 
experimental method would obviate the exasperating 
practice of shifting responsibility upon the institution 
from which the pupils came. The physician-minded 
teacher and administrator will be concerned mainly 
with the procedure employed in handling the case 
under their treatment. It will not be so easy to shift 



322 DIRECTING STUDY 

the burden of responsibility when this conception pre- 
vails. If the student is not on the road to recovery, a 
fresh analysis of the case may call stressfully for a 
modification of the treatment. Until the teacher and 
the institution have carried out both analysis of con- 
ditions and reasonable modifications of treatment, it 
is hazardous to pronounce final judgment upon the 
capacity of pupils in difficulty. 

Individuality and Common Interests. — The claims 
of individuality within the bonds of fellowship and 
the release of potentialities may be regarded as the 
supreme task of education. A proper emphasis on the 
social side of education obviates the fallacy of com- 
plete isolation of individual cases in teaching — a prac- 
tice that would be uneconomical if not prohibitive. 
The class group must be retained in our schools. The 
problem of regimentation is becoming more complex 
with the increasing numbers of pupils in our higher 
grades. A recognition of the social principle in pro- 
cedure values may enable the school to deal with its 
problem of numbers more effectively than is the case 
in conventional practice and, at the same time, make 
provision for the release of potentiality. These two 
objectives imply a co-operative emphasis upon the 
common elements (principles, as we have seen) and also 
a clear recognition of individual power and capacity 
within these general organizing principles. 

The central fact of life itself, the fact of a vital im- 
pulse to grow, furnishes the teacher a common in- 
tegrating and organizing principle upon which to pro- 
ceed in the development of conditions designed to foster 
the full expression of each individual in the group. 
Individual differences are not the dominant fact in 



A SHIFT OF EMPHASIS 323 

any living form— plant, animal, or human being. The 
essential phenomenon is life itself, with tendencies and • 
general habits working out in the direction of self- 
fulfilment and self-effectuation. The uniqueness of 
individuality may be but a small fraction of the total 
issue of one's life, and yet just that element which 
gives meaning and significance to the whole — the 
leaven, so to speak, in the total mass. To be able to 
recognize the common fact of life as the core and focus 
of our collective efforts and at the same time to recog- 
nize and appreciate the significance of that differen- 
tiating element of individuality — that particular factor 
of distinguishing character in each person — these two 
ways of looking at the teaching situation are deemed 
essential in approaching the problem of directing 
study. 

For example, one pupil in a class in English may 
express himself in excellent terms on the topic of " wire- 
less telegraphy," another on the "automobile," an- 
other on "The Village Blacksmith," another on 
"Balanced Ration," etc. Uniformity either in ma- t— 
terial or in response is clearly secondary. The essen- 
tial matter is expression of ideas in good form. The 
particular type of interest in this situation is utilized 
as a means and not an end in the accomplishment of 
the major purpose of the exercise or project. It is 
important to keep in mind a practical integration of 
means and ends. The formalist is in constant danger 
of becoming indolent in the use of ready-made and 
fully accredited sanctions. The inevitable tendency 
in such emphasis is materialism and a mechanical 
routine. On the other hand, a disregard of the means 
of education leads to a spurious sentimentalism. Ends 



V 



324 DIRECTING STUDY 

and ideals considered alone, divorced from the prac- 
tical means by which they are to be attained, have 
controlled educational practice when scientific method 
has been disparaged. 

Individual differences are often unduly exaggerated 
in the conventional schoolroom procedure and also in 
the inferences drawn from the results of tests of vari- 
ous sorts. The case of science as a factor in the prac- 
tice of medicine is suggestive here. The far-reaching 
significance of the small amount of science in any field 
consists mainly in the fact that the total issue is viewed 
in a vitally different way on account of the vast array 
of new problems raised by the apparently meagre 
amount of actual science employed. So it is in the 
matter of individual differences. The small amount 
of actual difference in comparison with the whole of 
one's expression or life is vitally significant just because 
an analysis of that difference discloses to the student 
of education a productive line of experimentation for 
affecting the character of the total results in the edu- 
cative process. The difficulty with methods of uni- 
formity is the fact that "that something" which is 
capable of acting as a leaven of the whole mass is in- 
adequately stressed. We may call that leaven the 
spark or uniqueness of individuality. Too often a 
devotion to the machinery of education leads to a 
blind acceptance of the philosophy expressed by Mr. 
Dooley: "If ye disciver a hivenly spark, water it, 
water it." 

An examination, disclosing marks all the way from 
20 per cent or less up to 100 per cent, is not a true basis 
for inference that the pupils examined differ by so 
much in capacity or in original powers in toto. One 



A SHIFT OF EMPHASIS 325 

pupil may or may not be three times as capable as 
another in any original or developmental sense. The 
numerical differences tend to distort the real differ- 
ences. A test of the more modern type likewise dis- 
closes differences ranging in the intelligence quotient 
from, say, 70 to 150 in a given group. Such a scale 
expresses relative differences. It is true that the nu- 
merical symbols attached to the results indicate 
remarkable differences. Again, it is well to consider 
the total issue and the relation which any abstracted 
aspect of life may bear to the whole of it. The actual 
difference in that small margin of differences in orig- 
inality may be greater or less than is indicated in the 
numerical means employed to express our thinking 
about human situations. 

Teachers who deal with concrete human material 
fully appreciate the inertness of some individuals under 
uniformity of treatment. If the "hivenly spark" was 
ever present, it at least seems never to have stirred 
some bodies to intellectual and moral awakening. 
There is a disposition, now and again, to believe that 
some stolid masses have never had that bit of leaven 
to stir to activity. All this may be due to circum- 
stance; it may be accounted for by original nature. 
The patent fact is that these impossible individuals 
have in a great many instances surprised the school- 
master and the critic by waking up later to the fine 
points of the game — by making what the world in 
general calls a success. It is not presumed that any 
specific is to be found in directing study that will en- 
able teachers to overcome all our present defects. It 
is, however, logically possible that a greater emphasis 
laid on self-activity, and less on formalism, may be 



326 DIRECTING STUDY 

the means of releasing potentialities more widely than 
has been evident in the recitation system. A change 
in circumstances so simple as that of having pupils 
work in partnerships at the board rather than to re- 
quire them to sit in their assigned pews for an hour 
in recitation, explanation, and in paying attention 
may serve to indicate a departure in the new direc- 
tion. A big growing boy of sixteen or eighteen with 
an enormous capacity for the consumption of food is 
not adapted to the requirements of passivity so often 
superimposed by the methods of our school system. 
He may be reduced to a condition of vegetating. Any 
one who has tried the experiment of partnership teach- 
ing with such boys can testify to marked changes in 
them. They may be unable in the passive or inactive 
physical mood to respond with any degree of intel- 
ligence or excellence, whereas, by the more active re- 
quirements of the various forms of partnership work, 
they may respond surprisingly well even on a warm 
spring-day afternoon in a class period of sixty to seventy 
minutes. The same proposition applies with equal 
force to all members of a working class group. 

Again, it is urged that the search for a constant, a 
final category in which to classify our pupils, does not 
constitute a real problem for the teacher. The experi- 
mental method with physician-minded teachers is a 
promising departure and it lies at the very heart of 
directing study. If the pupil fails to respond to one 
kind of treatment, the urgent demand of the new pro- 
cedure is to analyze, examine, diagnose the case and 
modify the treatment in terms of the reactions de- 
tected, and to go forward with courage in such redirec- 
tion of practice as conditions seem to warrant. The 



A SHIFT OF EMPHASIS 327 

modifications will appear within those narrow margins 
of individuality rather than in the main body of or- 
ganizing principles. In other words, the problem of 
directing study lies primarily in the zone of activities 
which are directly concerned with points of uniqueness 
of personality. It is a matter of getting at that leaven- 
ing principle in each individual, assured that if it is 
somehow applied in each individual in his own best 
mode of excellence the work will be done. Or to use 
another figure: the problem of directing study lies 
in the many-sided ways of assisting learners in getting 
and keeping the belts on their own generators. When 
the powers of pupils are geared up for work, the way to 
vital education is open. There is no universal panacea 
in this matter. The old way of urging boys to apply 
themselves with due diligence will be employed. The 
importance of that "heave of the will" is not to be 
neglected. What will be avoided is sole reliance upon 
a mere hortatory type of classroom ethics and a dis- 
position to regard intellectual interests as something 
inherited or dependent upon natural selection. Con- 
ditions of learning and mastery should receive constant 
attention in the new procedure. No one is to be put 
aside or held back because of inequalities in desirable 
habits of study and achievements. Directing study 
is to be approached in a liberal, experimental attitude 
of mind. Many good and effective ways will be em- 
ployed by the teacher who has become a diagnostician 
— one who analyzes conditions, and develops skill as a 
director of activities. 

A Lesson from the Old Rural School. — The problem 
of directing study is many-sided. If the unique quali- 
ties of personality are to be recognized in our pupils, 



328 DIRECTING STUDY 

it follows that the teacher must develop unusual ad- 
ministrative and managerial capacity. It is a new 
challenge to study and manage individuals in a work- 
ing group of some thirty pupils. Directing activity 
calls for alertness, resourcefulness, initiative, and mas- 
tery. One must be a teacher, not of a set lesson with 
its boundaries fixed, but a teacher of the subject in 
this procedure, as well as an expert diagnostician and 
an efficient director. 

The old-fashioned rural school, at its best, exhibited 
some meritorious qualities which may serve to suggest 
points of departure for our procedure. No brief is 
held for that outworn yet quite persistent and per- 
vasive institution. One who was schooled there and 
has taught in such a school is vividly aware of the 
problem of managing the proverbial thirty-three classes 
a day. The little tots in the primer class demand at- 
tention at this moment; the big boys and girls, sixteen 
to twenty-one, are there as well as all the groups be- 
tween these two extremes in the scale. The teacher 
had to be alert to individual differences and to marked 
ranges of advancement and achievement. One had 
to teach the simple number combinations up to Ray's 
Higher Arithmetic or perhaps Algebra, all in a day's 
work. We used to have a book on Intellectual Arith- 
metic — problems to be done mentally, that is, without 
slate and pencil or blackboard. The beginners were 
struggling with their words cat, dog, run, and new and 
sled, etc., the advanced classes were exposed to frag- 
ments of the masterpieces in such historic books as 
McGuffey's Readers. Here were forty to sixty pupils 
in an ungraded room and one schoolmaster. That 
was a real job. There was, perforce, much that had 



A SHIFT OF EMPHASIS 329 

to do with keeping school and hearing the lessons said. 
It was a busy place and there was little there to do 
with. It was book learning and often essentially a 
memorizing school. 

With all the disadvantages inherent in this old 
school, some elements of strength may be mentioned. 

The graded system directs attention to group medi- 
ocrity. There is no opportunity for direct comparisons 
of advancement and achievement. The pupil in the 
5 th grade, for example, is not reminded in explicit 
terms or by direct observation of his status with re- 
spect to what he might have been able to do in the 
ist or 3d grade, nor is he directly aware of what lies 
ahead. The graded system presents a more or less 
closed or shut-in view of the position of the pupil in 
the educational ladder, in so far as the pupil himself 
is concerned. The old school, meagre and ineffective 
as it was, offered the pupil, at least, a means of 
locating himself in the scale. There were concrete 
forms of experience that enabled the child in the 
earlier years to look upon those (to him) intellectual 
giants in the advanced classes who could spell big words 
with comparative ease and recite generous portions 
from the book. On the other hand, those in the more 
advanced classes could look back upon the lower 
classes, gaining thereby some notion of their own prog- 
ress. In view of the fact that this type of school was 
impoverished, lacking in library and equipment, a 
shocking amount of time was spent in listening to each 
other's performances. There was offered opportunity, 
again and again, for vicarious reviews. No doubt some 
information became a permanent possession of those 
pupils exposed, as they were, repeatedly to this pro- 



330 DIRECTING STUDY 

cedure. It may account for the notion that pupils 
in the old school were better grounded in the rudi- 
ments of learning than the more fortunate children of 
to-day in the well-equipped graded school. There is 
no valid evidence, however, that they were better 
equipped in this respect, and, moreover, there are 
other values and outcomes to be considered apart 
from a limited capacity to retain a few fundamental 
facts of knowledge. 

The particular lesson to be gained from the ungraded 
school is the range of responsibilities of the teacher. 
He was compelled to adapt his teaching, daily, to vary- 
ing needs and circumstances. If mathematics, it re- 
quired of him appreciation of the learner's powers in 
the comprehension of simple number combination on 
up through fractions, and problems in mensuration. 
So it was in every main department of the curriculum. 
Adaptability, versatility, administrative acumen, and 
appreciative understanding of all sorts of capacity 
and stages of advancement were necessary qualities 
for successful performance in the one-room rural school. 
Individual needs were constantly brought to the fore. 
The pupil really became the educative unit. Small 
groups of two to six or eight formed the class unit in 
so far as class sections were possible. It is interesting 
to note the fact that in the earlier day, before the rural 
school took on city airs in elaborate gradations and 
promotional schemes, the pupil was given many op- 
portunities to compete on the open basis of demon- 
strated ability and merit. In the spelling-bee and 
similar contests the youngster of whatever age won 
his position in the group. No one was held back for 
the superficial reason that he must spend a certain 



A SHIFT OF EMPHASIS 331 

number of years in attaining some predetermined goal. 
The pupil in reading and arithmetic, all studies for 
that, was permitted to associate himself with those 
of equal attainment, no matter what the differences 
might be in age and years of schooling. In contrast, 
the teacher of a given grade in a city school system or 
the teacher of one class section at a time would have 
little appreciation of the problems of the country 
school-teacher in the one-room school. Those who 
have had experience there know that it was a vital 
human situation, a big family with many difficult 
problems constantly challenging the teacher. 

Some experience of that sort prepares one for a better 
conception of the departure of directing study in terms 
of individual needs with a deliberate emphasis on work- 
ing toward unity and co-ordinating ideals through the 
self-activity of all. The graded-school system lends 
itself readily to all the disadvantages of group medi- 
ocrity. The tendency too frequently is to regard a 
given group or grade as possessing equal abilities. In 
fact, any selected group in a given grade is likely to be 
conceived as being a uniform group. It is difficult to 
start with the individual. The solution does not lie 
in a return to the ungraded rural-school type. The 
purpose of this digression is merely to set forth a 
possible illustration which may serve to make vivid 
the responsibility of the teacher who attempts to start 
with the individual as the educative unit instead of 
the class. 

Again, it should be noted that the teacher in a given 
grade or a teacher of a special subject in a particular 
year is not reminded constantly of the varying degrees 
of capacity and achievement of pupils in any prin- 



332 DIRECTING STUDY 

ciple which underlies a big realization or subject. The 
tendency to shift responsibility is well-nigh universal. 
The teacher who sees his particular sector of interests 
narrowly can blame to his heart's content the teacher 
in the preceding grade or in a neighboring department. 
The rural school-teacher could also indulge in the 
luxury of heaping opprobrium on his predecessor, but 
he, at least, had to face the results of his own teaching 
in so far as the effects of his work in one subject were 
transferred to another. How to obviate the separa- 
tion which is everywhere found in our graded system 
and to build up organic relations constitutes a real 
problem. The practice of disposing of dabs of informa- 
tion through the processes of lesson assigning, lesson 
hearing, review, and examination needs constant and 
critical analysis. The old-fashioned school affords just 
a suggestion, merely, not a specific at all. 

Perhaps we shall have to bring about a new emphasis 
upon soundly organizing principles which must be 
made to run through years of learning by and through 
which brute facts of information, problems of all sorts, 
and data of great variety are to be conceived. The 
practice of covering the ground is certainly not ac- 
ceptable or final. The pupil who resorts to the excuse 
that he has had this and that in some previous year or 
course and is therefore not expected to know it now 
indicates, in a way, a questionable emphasis. Until 
facts are used in the exemplification of abiding prin- 
ciples, they will escape us no matter how effective 
mechanical drill may be. A real progression within 
clearly defined organizing principles is yet to be real- 
ized in practically all upper-grade and high-school 
subjects. It is not at all difficult to understand why 



A SHIFT OF EMPHASIS 333 

pupils dismiss what they have half learned or only 
partially mastered. The continuing principles, binding 
together a sequence of courses of instruction in a major 
field of education, are hazy at best, and hardly ever 
made explicit for the learner. He may not be aware 
that he has done more than cover so many pages of 
this and that with rapid progress in disposing of sec- 
tions of the courses he is pursuing. The spirit of a 
subject is too seldom incorporated into one's living. 
The high-school pupil, as a rule, disposes of his books 
after passing the course. He rarely takes up his alge- 
bra, Latin, or "required readings" just to see what he 
can do with them after his marks in the courses are 
recorded. 

It should not be assumed that pupils are equipped 
with readily transferable qualities. One of the prob- 
lems of teaching is to get pupils to use what they know 
and to rise to their possibilities. For example, slovenly 
habits of English may be partially overcome by a co- 
operative drive for good form in any subject — science, 
history, Latin. Clear thinking and effective perform- 
ance in any course require good English; in fact, 
mathematics (or any other subject) in which shoddy 
expression is tolerated is shoddy mathematics. The 
task confronting every teacher is essentially that of 
assisting boys and girls in the adventure of thinking 
clearly and fully the work in hand. When there is a 
whole-hearted concentration of energy in the chal- 
lenge, a full and free release of one's powers in the 
effort to achieve results with some sense of mastery, 
education is assuredly going on. 

Self-Expression. — Educators who are Exponents of 
self-activity are frequently misunderstood. Eagerness 



334 DIRECTING STUDY 

to emphasize the creative activities of life may account 
for an apparent lack of interest in routine work. There 
are educators who would devote the period of elemen- 
tary and secondary education to assimilative activities, 
the theory being that productive scholarship and crea- 
tive thinking are to be postponed to a later time in 
higher education. On the side of method and discipline 
the formalist would urge a more or less repressive type 
of school in which docility and the dogma of acceptance 
prevail. The extreme form of training (not education) 
is illustrated in the Prussian schoolmaster who bids 
his pupils follow him, saying: "Listen to me so that 
you can tell me back what I am telling you." Cer- 
tainly by the time the high school is reached the 
American teacher is ready to begin to say to his pupils : 
"Now think clearly, honestly, fairly, resolutely, mod- 
estly, and do not fear to stand by your conclusions." 

Two types of activities should be recognized and 
harmonized — the conservative and the creative. In 
the earlier years the former, no doubt, predominate. 
Some organic and functional integration of these ac- 
tivities is urged for the adolescent. Self-expression 
is not limited to the latter. The child holds tenaciously 
to his possessions. He brooks no change in the stories 
he has learned. He repeats again and again the words, 
the tables, the lines, the information he learns in the 
fundamental social arts in his school. By repetition 
he gains a mastery of his world. It is supererogation 
to add that all this vigorous life in the conservative 
activities is a genuine form of self-expression. 

The old-fashioned school, often repressive, carried 
the emphasis on the routine tendency throughout its 
curriculum. Dates in history, grammatical paradigms, 



A SHIFT OF EMPHASIS 335 

formulas, and rules were mechanically learned and re- 
peated over and over until they could be recited ver- 
batim. They were not always used as a means of 
punctuating the thinking process which they were 
meant to serve. Much useful general information, 
however, was acquired in this way. The old sing- 
song geography lesson with a monotonous "Maine, 
Augusta on the Kennebec; Vermont, Montpelier on 
the Onion," etc., were effective in building in some 
nervous systems bonds that made it possible to keep 
Harrisburg in Pennsylvania and Helena in Montana. 
The reaction should be directed against the unintel- 
ligent practices of former days, not against the ac- 
quisition of even larger funds of useful information 
than the old school provided. The sane advocates 
of self-activity do not taboo memorizing dates in his- 
tory if they are used to support a body of historical 
information and ideas that would be vague without 
them. By the same token, a mastery of algebraic 
manipulation should subserve the needs of mathe- 
matical thought. It is a strange doctrine indeed and 
a gratuitous misapprehension of self-expression to 
suppose that facts and exact knowledge are non-essen- 
tials in the creative activities of education. 

If the old school devoted its energies too exclusively 
to mechanical drill and mere memory work, may it 
not be barely possible that some modern schools are 
in danger of dismissing too readily just that emphasis 
which characterized the school of the earlier day and 
thereby miss two goals instead of hitting one at least ? 
In our zeal to teach pupils to think we ought to be very 
sure that they do it. The test of thinking is by no 
means a simple one. The capacity to use facts, data, 



336 DIRECTING STUDY 

information in the solution of a problem is not always 
easily detected and appraised. It has always been 
comparatively easy to find out whether one knows a 
thing. The answer can usually be set over against a 
copy or pattern. This is especially true in memoriter 
forms of training. Unless there is evidence of creative 
activity apart from and perhaps in addition to the 
conservative forms of testing, what is called self-ex- 
pression needs to be constantly challenged. Suffice it 
to say that directing activity to creative ends requires 
keener insight and higher art and much harder work 
than hearing lessons said. Self-activity by no means 
implies a disregard of accredited knowledge. Self- 
expression may be promoted in the conservative ac- 
tivities, but it would be a meagre education that failed 
to equip our high-school boys and girls through creative 
activities for a changing world. An attempt will be 
made in the development of directing study (activity) 
to work out an integrating and functional relation be- 
tween authority and initiative. 

The Individual and Uniformity. — The doctrine of 
uniformity has accentuated the notion of minimum 
essentials of subject-matter (content). Each course 
of instruction is conceived to contain an irreducible 
or an inescapable minimum. All the pupils of a given 
class are expected to master to some extent, at least, 
the prescribed work of the course. The tendency is 
to strike an average body of accredited materials of 
instruction and to institute some methodology that 
will insure a high percentage of successes in this mini- 
mum content. The question arises in this practice: 
"For whom is the minimum prescribed?" Certainly 
the "average" pupil is a myth. Logically it would 



A SHIFT OF EMPHASIS 337 

appear that each pupil should be given his particular 
minimum, if any attempt is made to adjust subject- 
matter to individual needs and capacity. A pro- 
gramme of individual adjustment in terms of content 
of subject-matter seems utterly hopeless, if not in- 
superable. Moreover, the practice of trying to fit all 
members of a class group to a Procrustean curriculum 
is becoming increasingly unsatisfactory with the prog- 
ress which is being made in the study and appreciation 
of individual differences. After working into a course 
or a challenge, it would seem to be desirable to select 
a certain body of material in which real mastery may 
be relentlessly insisted upon. Perhaps such material 
worked into first by the whole class by individual and 
collective effort might be regarded an essential for 
certain pupils in the group who find it impossible, ap- 
parently, to accomplish more than that amount. 

The discussion in the preceding chapters raises very 
definitely the problem of making adequate provision 
for the uniqueness of the individual within our ordi- 
nary classroom organization. The individual, rather 
than the class, is the educative unit in this new ap- 
proach. Instead of starting with the class as the unit 
and seeking ways for the self-expression of each in- 
dividual, we start with the individual and seek to find 
ways of co-ordinating and unifying our ideals in and 
through progressive and responsible forms of self- 
activity. 

The pupils of high possibility should be given every 
opportunity for the release of their potentialities. En- 
thusiasm for directing study grows out of the proposi- 
tion that it may prove to be a productive procedure 
to this end. The elimination of waste, useless routine, 



338 DIRECTING STUDY 

and gratuitous explanation and delineation of the ob- 
vious frees energy for valuable work. There is no time 
wasted in trying to find out by futile recitation methods 
whether the pupils know what the teacher is perfectly 
sure they do not know. If the pupils of exceptional 
capacity are stimulated to work up to their maximum 
power, the procedure in which that occurs is highly 
commendable. The practical situations in the vast 
majority of cases make it impossible to work out a 
programme of segregation and congregation of pupils 
of ability. In the main, pupils of wide ranges of ability 
must be educated in the class group. Administrative 
difficulties in the plan of bringing together pupils of 
alleged equalities are insuperable. It is not to be con- 
tended that no failures will appear in this new pro- 
cedure. It may be urged, however, that even the busi- 
ness of taking care of pupils failing may become more 
intelligent than usually happens in the recitation sys- 
tem. In making the best possible provision for the 
development of the full measure of possibility of every 
pupil, those individuals of splendid promise should be 
given every conceivable opportunity for progress com- 
mensurate with their developing powers. It is for this 
reason that we are urging that no arbitrary or sug- 
gestive limitations be set up such as ready-made and 
predetermining minimum essentials of content. Some 
broadly defined and perhaps delimited field of prin- 
ciples may be set forth for given courses. Principles, 
however, are indeterminate; mastery of them is only 
relative at best. Yet it is entirely valid and altogether 
valuable to work toward a real mastery of certain 
materials designed to illustrate these principles. The 
practice of passing pupils on a mark of 70 or 75 pro- 



A SHIFT OF EMPHASIS 339 

motes half-learning or even less. At all events, mas- 
tery in any real sense is not achieved. By insisting 
that a mark below 90, say, shall not be acceptable in 
the material selected from time to time for mastery 
will produce a new sensation among the careless pupils 
and the intellectual loafers. Such a plan allows 10 
per cent margin for human frailties and obviates the 
perfection standard that seems to be persistently asso- 
ciated with 100 per cent. To lay out as the class pro- 
ceeds into a new challenge certain specific material for 
mastery, and then to hold to some such standard as 
suggested above, might serve to promote a keener in- 
tellectual interest than usually occurs. Much depends 
upon what is comprehended within the 10 per cent 
margin. Clerical errors, some important elements over- 
looked in proof-reading, and perhaps the omission of 
the "sacred comma/' are suggestive types of the hu- 
man frailties to be considered in estimating or rating 
such performances as are contemplated in this test for 
mastery. Even this check need not apply to all mem- 
bers of a class section or group. As noted above, we 
may devise such flexible standards as the new situation 
warrants. Perhaps three or four or more of a given 
class may be discovered in the journey who are able 
to master only a limited amount of material as a basis 
upon which the lowest passing mark of the school is 
given. It would be a wholesome practice to insist 
with relentless vigor that a mastery of something shall 
really be had. The highest emerging third or fourth 
of a working group are far beyond any such prescribed 
materials. They should not be tempted to believe 
that satisfaction of such formal requirements is at all 
adequate. All of this is an adventure in the quest of 



340 DIRECTING STUDY 

a procedure that will furnish incentives for the capa- 
ble to make such progress as lies within their powers. 
For the alert teacher who is always human (and rarely 
a pedagogue) there is an alluring opportunity for splen- 
did guidance in the field of prescribed temptations for 
those boys and girls who gain a real sense of power 
and mastery. Few potential students are worked to 
death; they are often bored to death. 

In developing a procedure based upon differentials 
on a sliding scale any diagnostic means that will en- 
able teachers to economize time and energy should be 
freely employed. The standard test may be used in 
this connection to splendid advantage. It ought to 
be possible to find out the potential capacity of pupils. 
One who makes a high score should be induced to 
achieve results far in excess of one who is rated low. 
It should become a matter of school ethics that those 
pupils who are able to do excellent work should attain 
the full measure of their possibilities. There is too 
much energizing below one's best. The pupil with a 
low index in any valid test may not be expected to 
accomplish what others in his class may. Rigid and 
arbitrary standards will have no unvarying validity in 
a procedure interpreted in terms of individual powers. 
Energy will not be wasted in futile attempts to bring 
the D pupil (so called) up to the standard which the 
A pupil ought to maintain even in the same course of 
instruction. All such judgments of pupils' capacities 
should be held in tentative form. The danger lies in 
sticking labels on boys and girls and thus be content 
with this as a final judgment in the case of the pupils 
with a low index. In all attempts to classify in- 
dividuals a significant trait of the competent teacher 



A SHIFT OF EMPHASIS 341 

will be a real capacity for revision of opinion. No 
static conception of capacity or power is adequate 
in the experiment of educating developing human 
beings. A new and fresh analysis of the case is con- 
stantly demanded. In the suggestion, above, no pupil 
is permanently classified and held to be unable to rise 
above a mastery of the least acceptable body of ma- 
terial. The way should be left open for trial and suc- 
cess. One who fails under one set of conditions may 
start on the road to recovery in a new situation. The 
weighing-pan for the child is not a proper instrument 
with which to feed the growing youngster. With this 
procedure in mind no upper limit is set at any time for 
any pupil. The indeterminate-assignment idea is 
emphasized. The co-operative project level of teach- 
ing is approximated. Not less, but far more, subject- 
matter, facts, and information will be used under the 
stimulus of a real challenge. Lessons will not be 
learned to-day for the primary purposes of recitation 
to-morrow and an examination a month hence. Power 
to use authority (accredited subject-matter) in work- 
ing out very definite principles in a functional inter- 
pretation of the materials of instruction will be 
constantly focussed upon in the procedure of directing 
study. 

Production of Changes and the Product. — We, as 
teachers, are concerned with the production of changes 
in our pupils. We should be concerned with the prob- 
lem of developing thinking boys and girls. It is rela- 
tively easy to determine the accuracy with which pupils 
are able to reproduce results of training. A vast array 
of connections can be built up in the assimilation of 
dabs of information. The measurement of results is 



342 DIRECTING STUDY 

a type of analysis which may contribute little, if any- 
thing, to an effective procedure to be employed in the 
production of desirable changes in our pupils. It is 
one thing to test the ability of the pupil to respond 
correctly in answering the "question," "What is the 
Monroe Doctrine?" or "What is the square root of 
sixteen?"; it is an entirely different task to teach the 
meaning or significance of the Monroe Doctrine or 
the concept of square root. The distinction between 
the product and the process of producing results is 
sharply drawn in this connection for purposes of em- 
phasis. Our problem is to stimulate and guide mental 
life in the production of such changes as are deemed 
most fruitful for the individual and most desirable in 
our social order. 

Persistence of Absolutistic Conceptions. — Even if 
it were scientifically possible to measure the general 
intelligence or mentality of boys and girls and to 
ascribe to each a proper "intelligence quotient" (or 
some other expression of what tends to become a final- 
ity or a fixity), and if it were a demonstrable proposi- 
tion that by education not "one cubit could be added" 
to one's intellectual stature (a contention which seems 
absurd in the light of modern science) — even so, we 
would still be confronted with the abiding task of fabri- 
cating procedures that would enable each individual 
to attain his maximum development. And then, if it 
should appear that each individual is potentially able 
to reach his particular level (his "intelligence quotient" 
level of 90, 100, 120, 140, or what not) in any legitimate 
field of education from the three R's to an appreciation 
of "Hamlet," we would still be unable to find any 
way of escaping responsibility for the development of 



A SHIFT OF EMPHASIS 343 

the most effective procedures possible for every boy 
and girl. At all events, a deliberate adherence to the 
method of modern science would serve to develop a 
new attitude toward the pupil who is having difficulty 
in any study in the curriculum. The dogmatism of 
the absolutist in pronouncing hasty judgment upon 
the capacity and potentiality of pupils is well known. 
It is quite the fashion to say that this boy is born 
"short" in capacity to appreciate or to learn Latin, 
and that this girl is biologically unfit for the study of 
pjgebra, and so on. Pedagogical determinism is con- 
stantly creeping into the teacher's philosophy. 

If one takes the anatomical view of the organization 
of nerve-cells as the basis of intelligence, and assumes 
that differences in ability and performance are due 
to the original structure of the nervous system, there 
is a temptation to prove an alibi by insisting that the 
student who fails is lacking in quality or number of 
original nerve-cells. The schoolmaster for ten thou- 
sand years has been adept in the invention of formulas 
by which to explain the delinquencies of his pupils. 
Evidence may point strongly to the anatomical basis 
of intelligence, and it is logically possible that differ- 
ences in capacity are conditioned by the number of 
neurones. Biologists have much to offer in this analy- 
sis. The functioning of special areas of the brain — the 
speech, visual, auditory, and memory centres, for ex- 
ample — would seem to indicate that the higher func- 
tions of the mind are conditioned by the organization 
of neurones. The unexplored areas of the brain are 
an inviting field for the scientist. Little is yet actually 
known about the higher powers of the mind. What is 
known does not enable the teacher to know in advance 



344 DIRECTING STUDY 

of the journey the probable success of a given candidate 
in the pursuit of the multiplication tables or the laws 
of falling bodies. The experimental method obviates 
the necessity of thinking in terms of absolutes; it " tries 
to break down apparent fixities and to induce changes." 
If every form of educational determinism is deleted 
from our philosophy, the challenge of instituting our 
children and fledgling youth into their rich social and 
racial heritage, together with building procedures for 
the release of potentialities, is a superb challenge. 

Habits of Study. — If, in our thinking about the de- 
velopment and the progress of the individual, we start 
with physiological tendencies and work up through 
habituation, we ought to be impressed with the high 
potentiality for uprise and downslide conditioned by 
circumstance and opportunity. The possibilities for 
progress can hardly be overestimated when normally 
constituted children and youth are stimulated and 
guided in both early home training and schooling along 
productive lines of habit building. All through our 
theme behavioristic psychology is emphasized. We 
speak of habits of all sorts : habits of expression, habits 
of attention, habits of application, habits of thinking, 
and so on. The common way of saying, "That per- 
son is a creature of habits," expresses the significance 
we attach to habits. The urge to excellence is per- 
haps mainly an organization of habits in terms of 
some particular mode of achievement. The formation 
of habits, the production of good habits, and the pre- 
vention of bad habits, both the positive and the nega- 
tive side of habituation — all these imply a possibility 
of control and direction. In the attempt to analyze 
initiative, creativeness, intelligence, we find ourselves 



A SHIFT OF EMPHASIS 345 

working definitely into explanations and discussions 
of ways or habits of thinking. The pupil who is given 
to passivity, never taking responsibility for a forward 
drive into a new situation unless specifically prodded 
on, is a pupil with a definite organization of habits — 
the habits of passivity and docility. On the other 
hand, the student who is alert to new situations, who 
drives ahead on his own account, he, too, is exhibiting 
a system of habits — effective habits of initiative. We 
may not be able to teach pupils how to study before 
they are able to study, just as we may not be able to 
teach a boy to swim prior to his own swimming; but 
we maintain the proposition that teaching in terms of 
directing activity does warrant the view that we may 
bring about improvement in habits of study. To be 
sure, our adaptive experience is expressed in^terms of 
habit; inventive intelligence makes use of habits under 
the stimulus of problems to be solved. 

Directing study may be partially defined as a technic 
of building economical and productive habits of think- 
ing. It is maintained that deliberate provision should 
be constantly made for the development and exercise 
of the pupils' originality, initiative, responsibility, and 
creativeness as well as the assimilative and conservative 
activities. These qualities may escape direct methods 
of development. The futility of commanding pupils 
to think is obvious. To be content with external forms 
of attention or concentration betrays an easy and 
uncritical acceptance of pedagogical dogma. Unless 
pupils are gaining in capacity to apply their powers 
to real tasks the school is not performing its proper 
function; unless there is a growing sense of respon- 
sibility, a developing must-be from within, the pupil 



346 DIRECTING STUDY 

may actually be deteriorating while making a super- 
ficial progress in the school. An effective direction of 
habits of work would seem to be an important factor 
in the development of these high qualities of the mind. 
It is not enough any longer to point with pride to those 
who have passed through the schools, attributing their 
successes indiscriminately to the schools and the sub- 
jects pursued. Other factors have their weight. The 
rather daring programme is being urged that a more 
deliberate emphasis shall be given to the development 
of the thinking man than has appeared in the tradi- 
tional school. 

Many other aspects of the problem of directing 
study are cited in preceding discussions. These few 
tentative statements are presented for the purpose of 
re-emphasizing lines of departure in an attempt to work 
into a new general methodology. 

Fixing Responsibility. — After all, the most important 
thing in education is to have boys and girls wanting 
to learn. For the ultimate veto lies in the pupil. If he 
refuses to respond, the best teaching is of no avail. 
Any teacher able to devise procedures in which con- 
spicuously large numbers of pupils really want to mas- 
ter their studies transcends accredited "methods" 
and grips essential values in stimulating and guiding 
mental life. The desire and the ability to lay hold 
of a difficult task and see it through are invaluable 
traits. This position is maintained in spite of the con- 
troversy on "mental training." It is indeed a "soft 
pedagogy" that encourages any relinquishment of 
effort; we need a new emphasis on continued effort in 
our schools to-day. This concession is frankly made to 
the schoolmaster who is prone to indulge to the full 



A SHIFT OF EMPHASIS 347 

his inveterate penchant for formalism. "Accuracy 
and exactness of thought and mind" may turn out to 
be a fiction in so far as general powers are concerned. 
There may be no priceless power gained in conquering 
difficulties as such. The ability to stare ox-like a tough, 
disagreeable task out of countenance may smack of a 
Puritanism long since outgrown. Nevertheless, until 
the exponents of progressive education find a technic 
by which direct values are assured, the old shibboleths 
of the formalist will still be found serviceable and in 
a sense practical. 

The school loafer is a menace to free education. The 
increasing cost of high-school and higher public edu- 
cation is becoming a serious problem. The principle 
should be clearly recognized that education is free 
only in the sense that it is offered to those boys and 
girls and young men and women who are willing to 
respond and to take their full share of responsibility 
in seeing to it that, in so far as they are concerned, 
their obligation to develop themselves to the full mea- 
sure of their possibilities is fully met. This does not 
mean a denial of educational opportunity to any seri- 
ous-minded individual. It does not mean a prede- 
termined selection of ability under any insidious form 
of aristocracy. Any student prepared to enter upon 
any administrative unit of the public system of edu- 
cation should be given an opportunity to try his powers. 
At the same time, it would seem to be necessary and 
fitting to remind the student of his obligation. Edu- 
cation should be made free to those who put forth 
effort commensurate with their developing powers. 
Public opinion, and particularly school public opinion, 
should be educated in the appreciation of the cor- 



348 DIRECTING STUDY 

relative nature of rights and duties. Youth of high- 
school age ought to be able to understand the full 
significance of this proposition and induced to act 
accordingly. Doubtless far more than has been ac- 
complished heretofore could be done to help pupils 
develop a keen sense of personal responsibility for the 
realization of their own possibilities through education. 

This is one side of the shield. The other side is 
necessarily such revaluation and readjustment of edu- 
cational practices as will make it clearly possible for 
each individual to grow into the full measure of his 
possibility. It ought to be evident that the pupil 
should not bear the entire responsibility in the dis- 
agreement between himself and the school. All sys- 
tems, theories, principles, "methods" gain a new sig- 
nificance with every application to life; they become 
fluid in their use. Rigid, arbitrary, and dogmatic 
fixities can be applied to inanimate bodies or mere 
automatons. The spirit of the experimental method 
suggests change and adaptability. Fruitful modifica- 
tions of method are to be expected in any attempt to 
adjust education to the needs of pupils. 

The science which is applied to inanimate objects 
is not the kind of science to be applied to the art of 
teaching. The science which enables one to predict 
exact outcomes is not the kind of science which can 
be utilized by the teacher in his essential problem of 
stimulating and guiding mental life. Just what to do 
next in the educative process never falls within cut-and- 
dried formulas. Even Spencer's evolutionary laws fail 
us as a guide if we provide any place in our philosophy 
for the exercise of creative ability, initiative, inventive- 
ness. Self-conscious beings find little comfort in rid- 



A SHIFT OF EMPHASIS 349 

ing on the back of some mechanically driven evolu- 
tionary Pegasus. The issue of democracy is that man 
has a share in building his world and that he is not a 
mere creature of an external law — the same yester- 
day, to-day, and forever. 

It is idle to talk about history repeating itself in a 
world of changes. The indolent formalist who holds 
tenaciously to the status quo and the mores is not as- 
sisting the potential citizens of the coming generation 
to cope with the problems of the new age. It is in- 
conceivable that any one educated to think in terms 
of the modern-science outlook should any longer main- 
tain the dogmas that "Whatever is, is right"; that 
"It is; therefore it ought to be"; that "Human na- 
ture cannot be changed"; or that "Since we have al- 
ways had war, we always will." The persistence of 
such determined ignorance can be explained only by 
uncritical acceptance of an old philosophy unsuited 
to the requirements of modern life. The dogma of 
acceptance, blind reliance upon authority, resignation 
are terms and attitudes which are incompatible with 
the theory of development and growth, and a world 
that must be improved by human effort. When Mar- 
garet Fuller announced that "she accepted the Uni- 
verse," Carlyle answered: "Gad, she'd better." A 
more modern thinker answered her by saying: "Gad, 
she'd better not." A lip-service to knowledge is a poor 
and an inadequate preparation to meet the exigencies 
of modern life. Henry Adams saw the difficulty with 
the current practice when in one cryptic sentence in 
his "Education" he remarked, "Nothing in education 
is so astonishing as the amount of ignorance it accumu- 
lates in the form of inert facts." 



350 DIRECTING STUDY 

Direction of Activity as Education. — Turning from the 
more or less pessimistic observations upon education 
and teaching, the conception of education as direction 
of activity becomes wholesome and inspiring. Ex- 
perience, knowledge, theory, absolutes of every con- 
ceivable variety, must be continuously , reconstructed 
at the point of the crisis or difficulty in solving the 
problems of life. Intelligence lays hold of the past, 
organizes it, and reconstructs it for the purpose of 
furnishing the will a point from which to embark in 
doing the next thing in a changing order. In a sense, 
the future toward which we, as teachers, are constantly 
working is a Plutonian wilderness. Intelligence work- 
ing at the point of difficulty furnishes the only search- 
light available for guidance in the solution of a problem. 
Plan and purpose are not predetermined; they are 
evolving factors in a changing, growing order — self- 
originating, self-directing, immanent. 

Without a problem there is no creative thinking, expresses 
the central principle in this new procedure. For the 
high school it might well become a motto toward which 
all activities lead and the guiding influence in project- 
ing the curriculum into increasing areas. The teacher 
who turns from the primacy of subject-matter to the 
problem of directing mental life at the point of diffi- 
culty faces a new and far-reaching task. The thrill 
of adventure and the stirring of the challenge appeal 
to constructive minds and give a zest to life. The 
programme presupposes both a disposition to study 
pupils at work and also a tremendous responsibility 
in devising controls that will insure productive effort. 
We entertain no illusion about understanding boys 
and girls. Our ignorance of how children are drawn 



A SHIFT OF EMPHASIS 351 

toward increased social efficiency or any other ob- 
jective is appalling. One can easily agree with Dr. 
Thorndike when he says: "The psychology of a ten- 
year-old boy would probably involve as much subject- 
matter for investigation as the astronomy of a solar 
system or the geology of a continent." 

Some player of consummate skill may allege that 
he knows all the possible moves in the game, and that 
no matter how the novice proceeds he, the perfect 
player, is doomed to win. All that, however, belongs to 
a world made perfect, but not to the world as we know 
it. In a world of change moral hazards must be taken 
when venturing on the uncharted seas of human con- 
duct. To think of providing the will with a point of 
departure; to appreciate the significance of systems, 
formulas, principles, and theories which are ever turn- 
ing fluid when applied to life situations; to be able to 
reconstruct experience in meeting ever-new situations 
in the spirit of the experimental scientist — such a gen- 
eral attitude of mind is essential in working out the 
thesis of directing study as conceived in this presenta- 
tion. 



SUGGESTIVE HELPS AND PROBLEMS 

FOR TEACHERS IN USING 

THIS BOOK 

Almost any one problem selected from the list below 
might prove an adequate basis for a profitable study or 
essay for any group of teachers. The object in these 
suggestive helps is to find out not whether the book has 
been read; to ascertain not whether the reader knows 
what the book says on page so and so, but rather to 
stimulate creative thinking and to develop a problem- 
solving attitude toward teaching. These questions 
with their settings are challenges. Agreement is not 
sought. Identity of opinion is ordinarily quite stupid 
indeed. The true educator suffers the pain of honest 
doubt; he rarely enjoys poor pedagogical health. The 
hope is that thought-provoking discussions may be pro- 
moted in a co-operative study of these questions among 
teachers and their professional associates. Parents, 
social workers, and others vitally interested in schools 
and public welfare may be invited to join study groups. 
It is suggested that a study group be formed and that 
debates and discussions be arranged among teachers 
and supervisors, using any part of the material sug- 
gested below that appears to be inviting and potent. 
Perhaps a chapter or a question in this list would fur- 
nish a basis for such a study group for a month or a 

353 



354 SUGGESTIVE HELPS AND PROBLEMS 

year. One of the most profitable procedures would be 
to conduct an experiment along the lines suggested in 
Chapters I and III and make the experiment the basis 
of discussion in the study group. 

PREFACE 

i. Out of the statement of aims formulate in your own way 
a constructive analysis of educational practice as you know it 
and suggest modifications for improvement. Take a school you 
are familiar with; describe what goes on in the classroom, evalu- 
ate what you see, and present a real system of vital education 
as you conceive it ought to be. 

2. The index, intelligence quotient, I. Q., is the ratio between 
mental age and chronological age. If the child is 8 years old and 
tests the same age mentally, the I. Q. is ioo. If the mental 
age is io and the chronological age is 8 (2 is yi of 8), add 25, and 
the I. Q. is 125. If mental age is 6 and chronological age is 8 
(2 is % of 8), subtract 25, and the I. Q. is 75. These ratios are 
worked out in terms of retardation and acceleration. Do you 
think a child's I. Q. (this index) is likely to remain permanent 
from 5 to 14 years of age? Are differences in the intelligence 
quotients due to differences in native mentality or circumstances, 
such as health, nutrition, vitality, temperament, education ? Is 
there such a thing as arrested development or a waking up to the 
fine points of the game? 

3. Study the purpose of education. What kind of minds 
are being made in the schools you know ? Is it true that accep- 
tance of beliefs or conclusions has characterized education? 
Give examples. Try the experiment of asking your neighbor 
why he is a Methodist or Seventh Day Adventist, a republican 
or democrat in party politics, and then challenge the reasons 
given. Does he fly passionately to a defense of his belief, or does 
he calmly examine the question in the light of the facts? 

4. What is the effect of having students learn lessons as they 
do ordinarily, and of hearing them said in the traditional way ? 
Is the practice a vital improvement on rote learning ? Does the 
acceptance of ready-made conclusions promote creative think- 



SUGGESTIVE HELPS AND PROBLEMS 355 

ing or develop minds expectant of change ? Indicate a procedure 
in which a problem may be analyzed in the light of facts. 

5. Do you hold that facts (accredited knowledge) must be 
had before thinking can be carried on? How do you account 
for the questions of the little child before entering school? Do 
we first gather facts and then do some thinking? How do we 
think ? Did you ever watch a beetle with his load trying to sur- 
mount an obstacle in its path ? Study some such situation and 
note the " trial and error" method, and relate it to the method of 
"fumbling and success" illustrated in the laboratory by the 
inventor or scientist. Do you recall the way your mind worked 
as you solved a difficult exercise in geometry or grammar? Did 
the beetle think? Did you think in that difficult problem? 

6. Keep the new aim of education in mind in attacking these 
exercises. Describe the educated man. What are his char- 
acteristics and what is the task of education in making the indi- 
vidual? 

CHAPTER I 

1. What is the function of the teacher in this threefold re- 
lationship: pupil, subject, teacher ? Can a person impart informa- 
tion? A piece of pie can be passed over; a brick can be hurled 
at a person. Is the pupil "a hedge to be trimmed, or a torrent 
to be confined"? Do "we" mould the child in school or does 
man create himself by his own activity? 

2. "Only when an effect which you wish to produce depends 
upon a fraction or preposition are such things humanly worth 
knowing." Is this a sound, valid, and valuable guide in dealing 
with the materials of instruction ? We used to teach the alpha- 
bet, learned a mass of combinations, as db, og, im, and then ad- 
vanced to simple words as cat, at, am, dog. Big words were 
taboo. The little minds had to march along in a lock-step, regi- 
mental uniformity from the "simple to the complex." Did 
they learn to read? Yes, in spite of the system! Should we 
teach the multiplication tables as such, or conjugations of verbs 
as such? Justify some conventional practice in the light of 
these facts on the use of data, and the way reading is taught to- 
day. 

3. "Give the child something to do which he cannot do 



356 SUGGESTIVE HELPS AND PROBLEMS 

without finding out what you would like to have him know." 
Study the suggestive exercises in Chapter I and work out a pro- 
jected challenge in some original way, selecting any subject or 
topic with which you are fairly familiar. Try a word list, work- 
ing it up co-operatively for a spelling contest. What would you 
do with the prescribed course of study which sets a minimum 
word list for each grade? Would you follow it literally, or in- 
clude that minimum with your free list? Try a nature-study 
problem or a general-science problem. Rainfall maps and 
forestry maps might be used. Are you sure pupils in the upper 
grades could come to any independent judgments in the use of 
such materials ? High school teachers could set up problems in 
their special fields. Distinguish between capacity to assimilate 
the printed page in a regurgitation of lessons and a productive, 
creative use of materials in the pursuit of a problem. 

4. Work out a statement of what our civilization would be 
if the alphabet and printing were suddenly obliterated. What 
kind of world would we have? Try to divide 3245.65 by 248.5, 
using the Roman notation. A Greek mathematician stepping 
into our modern world would be amazed to find everybody doing 
long division. Indicate the extent to which human powers of 
abstraction (thinking) have been liberated by the introduction 
of the arabic notation. Did it ever occur to you that our 
arithmetic, as well as our modern science, came from the Sara- 
cenic world, but was delayed some four or five centuries because 
of bigotry and prejudice? The "heathen dogs" could not give 
the Christian world anything! We still think of the "Renais- 
sance" as the revival of learning; perhaps it was the revival of 
the "palsy of a doting age". Take the 26 letters of the alpha- 
bet and multiply 1 by 2, that product by 3, and the new product 
by 4, and so on until you have multiplied by every number up 
to 26. The final product will give you a startling conception of 
the possibilities of forming new combinations out of simple ele- 
ments. The final product indicates the number of permutations 
these 26 elements can be fashioned into. The printer throws 
down the type and creates a new page by recombining these 
simple elements. The copy mind tries to collect a glorified bag 
of tricks to live on; the alphabetical mind throws down the type 
and creates a new movie film to meet the new situation. " Fire, 
cattle-herding, weaving, pottery, tillage, horse-taming, the go- 



SUGGESTIVE HELPS AND PROBLEMS 357 

ing down to sea in ships of men with hearts of treble brass," 
the alphabet, the arabic notation, electromagnetism (radio) are 
all world-shaking events and discoveries which have "commoved 
a bewildered humanity which found itself (with each discovery) 
raised one giddy step above the brute." The modern machine 
(printing-press, automobile, locomotive, dynamo) has been made 
possible by arithmetic, the quadratic equation, etc. The differ- 
ence between a howling savage back among the cavemen and a 
twentieth-century man in civilized America is not so much a dif- 
ference in physiological structure as a difference in the humanity 
(social organization) into which each is born. Take the alpha- 
bet or the arabic notation and work out a statement showing how 
man's powers have been liberated by these epoch-making dis- 
coveries. What do you think of any child's potentiality for 
further development after capacity to deal with words in new 
combinations and capacity to carry on computation processes 
in the fundamental operations have been acquired? 

5. Have you ever had the thrill of being a victim of such 
judges of manual righteousness as the square, the level, and the 
plumb-bob? Try to use your opinions, your powers of per- 
suasion, your theories on a machine that refuses to go. The ma- 
chine is an "irreclaimable rationalist." Working in cement 
suggests a certain sanity in fashioning materials; the "Village 
Blacksmith" yields a solidity of character. The Greeks dealt 
with ideas; the Saracenic world (9th to 12th centuries) dealt 
with facts; the "Renaissance" was engaged with words, often 
with empty verbalisms and hollow presentment of ideas. Out 
of the last of these three stages we have had "imitation, more 
imitation, and more strict imitation." What has been the effect 
upon education of this long period of excessive imitation of the 
past ? What has happened in the material world during the past 
300 years and notably in the past 50 years, by working with 
facts and ideas, by analyzing problems in the light of facts? 
What in your judgment is the value to a teacher of working out 
some tangible, objective (concrete) project — a bit of constructive 
art work — such as the making of a real design to work by or the 
building of a real hat, dress, table, or wheel in a machine? 

6. What do you say when the boy fails? Do you say he 
can't learn it, or that he has not learned it yet? What is the 
effect of telling a boy he is "no good"? Do you think a boy 



358 SUGGESTIVE HELPS AND PROBLEMS 

labelled incompetent is likely to prove that he is "no good"? 
Are we prone to measure O u dge) others in terms of our par- 
ticular modes of excellence (erudition perhaps) and fail to ap- 
praise special merit in other lines? Illustrate. Do teachers 
and educators mother the curriculum? Are special ways of edu- 
cational salvation charted and jealously guarded? The high 
churchman of England, on being interrogated as to whether one 
might be saved by any other route, replied after a bit of agoniz- 
ing: "Well, I would not like to say there is no other way, but 
[after a lucid interval] no gentleman would seek any other way, 
don't you know?" Suggest a definite classroom procedure in 
which you can give scope to individuality. Remember the 
American is not a lock-step man in the making; he asks to set 
energies free in order to release values; he suffers himself to be 
convinced, not to be commanded; he demands a regulated free- 
dom, liberty armed with the law. The American movement 
does not follow a road already made; the road is traced as the 
movement goes on. Indicate some ways of squaring procedure 
to these American demands. Is the child ever too young to 
begin development along these lines? 

7. Try the experiment of directing action in some subject 
as described on pages 15-25. Write a diary of your experiences 
in your experiment. 

8. Set up a definite experiment designed to arouse curiosity. 
Take any problem you will. Try to think of the environment 
and the control of circumstances in which the pupil is stimulated 
to becoming a reacting agent. 

CHAPTER II 

1. What is the business of the teacher in the lesson-hearing 
school ? Is order (obedience) or work heaven's first law ? The 
little fellow, on being asked what he was doing in school, replied, 
that he was just waiting for the rest of them to catch up. Sug- 
gest ways of meeting this child's dilemma. Is it essential that 
a whole class should work in uniformity — all moving along by 
the clock? If so, why? If not, what then? 

2. How long should the class period be in the Junior High 
School? in the Senior High School? What would you suggest 
as the most productive use to be made of a class period of 40 



SUGGESTIVE HELPS AND PROBLEMS 359 

minutes? of 70 minutes? What are pupils doing when the 
teacher and a single pupil are engaged in a recitation dialogue ? 

3. What is the value of the recitation, the reiteration of 
lessons? Is there waste in the system? Can it be avoided? 
Is there any value in having a pupil recite a thing he knows per- 
fectly well? What is the value in it? Is there any value in 
siphoning vacuums in class, compelling all to pay attention to 
the process? If so, what? Do teachers ask pupils questions 
which they know they cannot answer before they ask them? 
Indicate all the ways of wasting time and energy in some class 
you have examined. 

4. How would you direct classroom procedure to more pro- 
ductive outcomes than are usually secured in the conventional 
school? Would it be profitable to have every pupil working 
forward at his own best rate in a real challenge? What would 
be the function of the teacher in such procedure? 

5. What are the disadvantages in making the class the unit 
of instruction? Can you make the pupil the educative unit? 
If so, how would you secure unity ? Study a given class group 
as follows: assign a definite set task of 10 exercises or 5 pages. 
Try to find out what each pupil accomplishes (as well as what 
his father and mother accomplish in assisting in the preparation 
of lessons). Place the pupils in some scale according to your 
own devising. Then try another plan: have the same pupils 
start, all on their marks, and work forward in similar material 
for a whole class period (one or more) and compare results in 
the two situations. Now work out ten significant questions to 
put up to teachers in the lesson-hearing school. What is to be 
done with the boy who solves 50 exercises in a single class period 
under the stimulus of directed guidance? Also what is to be 
done with a classmate who gets only 3 exercises in the same time ? 
Is the school a practising ground for morality for either when 10 
exercises are assigned for the next lesson, with a swift command, 
Class excused? 

6. What opportunity has the teacher to examine the habits 
of work of pupils in the recitation and lecture systems? De- 
vise some procedure in which habits of work may be studied. 
Connect procedures with educational guidance. 



360 SUGGESTIVE HELPS AND PROBLEMS 

CHAPTER III 

Suggestion: The basis for appreciation of the learning proc- 
ess is to be found in a controlled experiment in actual learning. 
Teachers are urged to work out for themselves a heroic experi- 
ment in mastering some problem of learning, keeping an accurate 
check on the progress made and a diary of their experiences from 
day to day. Chapter III is an attempt to create interest in 
teacher study. Teachers need it in their efforts to gain adequate 
notions about pupils at work; it is also a vital way of improving 
teachers in service. Supervisors and all other pedagogical com- 
mandments who go about advising teachers how to do it need to 
study their own mental processes in a vital learning problem 
of their own, in order that they may be everlastingly mindful of 
backgrounds and difficulties in learning. 

i. Work out a controlled experiment such as is suggested, 
p. 96 ff. 

2. Is capacity to recognize a simple element in a relatively 
simple situation a guaranty of capacity to recognize that sim- 
ple element in a relatively more complex situation (in a moving, 
learning synthesis)? Is there any experimental evidence to 
support either an affirmative or a negative answer to this propo- 
sition ? 

3. Is inability to recognize (know) a simple element in a sim- 
ple situation (out of context) a criterion of inability to recognize 
or use that simple element in a moving, learning situation? 
Support the answer with any data possible. 

4. In a learning process (not in a social-practical world) when 
is a response (answer) right or correct and when is it wrong or 
incorrect, and how much or to what extent may it be either? 
Illustrate. When handwriting is appraised does just ability 
"to take pen in hand" and make a blot on paper have any sig- 
nificance ? Where is just no ability in handwriting to be located 
in a scale of differences representing results in handwriting ? 

5. When one tries in vain to recall a familiar name and sub- 
sequently in walking along indifferently engaging in revery, it 
comes "to mind," what is the explanation? Was the name for- 
gotten? Study the problem in terms of the things that lie in 
the focus of attention now and then out in the marginal areas — 
the things that are explicit at one time and implicit at another. 



SUGGESTIVE HELPS AND PROBLEMS 361 

Do these wily facts we deal with in teaching play hide and seek 
with each other in the mass meeting of the mind? When are 
mistakes evidences of progress? 

6. When pupils say, "I can't get the problem," "I don't 
understand it," what is the real difficulty? 

7. Set up some such controlled procedure as is indicated on 
pp. 120-125, keep a record of progress noting experiences in di- 
recting the work in hand, and present a brief summary of conclu- 
sions and values derived from it. Do difficulties come to a group 
of working students by the clock? Justify the formal methods 
of having thirty pupils in any class attack the same thing, at 
the same time, in the same way. When all are working forward 
within a challenge indicate the results. Are they uniform? 
What is the justification of having the whole class pay attention 
to an explanation, or to a review ? What does it mean to direct 
the pupil's activity at the point of difficulty? Do teachers 
talk too much ? 

8. Does each individual develop his own habits of work, his 
own intellectual method? Is there some general "frame of 
reference" within which each individual may develop his own 
unique patterns of work and thinking? What is difficult for 
one pupil may be perfectly easy for another. Illustrate, if 
possible. Is it a waste of time and energy to hold all members 
of the class to a regimental uniformity? What are some ways 
of making provision for individuality in a given class group? 



CHAPTER IV 

1. What specific aims have been sought in the topic method ? 
Is there any way to organize the topic procedure so that every 
contribution and discussion would be an illumination of a com- 
mon integrating idea or principle? Illustrate. 

a. Select any course of instruction — English, grammar, 
American history, geometry, chemistry, drawing — (or any other) 
and work out a statement of organizing ideas and submit a few 
sets of illustrative exercises in varying amounts to make clear 
the practical significance of differentials. 

3. Explain and illustrate the indeterminate assignment idea. 
Use any material in which there is a fair degree of familiarity. 



362 SUGGESTIVE HELPS AND PROBLEMS 

4. Present a statement of a specific preparation of the new 
teacher in a directing-study procedure. 

5. Is it possible to develop in students at work the habit of 
working mainly for the "wages of going on " ? Does a minimum 
essential (a set lesson) become the maximum necessity? What 
is the effect upon both the teacher and the pupil in prescribing 
daily set lessons under methods of uniformity?. 

6. Who in the game of contest feels the sting of defeat? 
Is there not a vast amount of soft pedagogy in sentimental talk 
about the boy, 5th or 25th, in the race? Note the fact that all 
pupils, those having the lowest score, were energizing far above 
any minimum that would have been set. (Pp. 168-172.) 

CHAPTER V 

1. Collect information in a specific recitation from the pupils 
on what each one is doing during the recitation. Try to find a 
typical traditional recitation. It would be illuminating to find 
out just what each individual is thinking about in a college class 
under the lecture system. 

2. Does the recitation system, or lecture system, promote 
passivity, acceptance of belief, unchallenged opinion ? How can 
the spectator (in class, before the film, in front of the book, 
facing the lecturer) be converted into a participant? Devise 
some procedure calculated to produce reacting agents out of our 
passive students. 

3. In what sense is a teacher's primary business that of 
fashioning (shaping or building) an environment in which crea- 
tive thinking may be promoted? 

4. Indicate the teacher's task in directing activity in a defi- 
nite example. Amplify, What am I to do next in this situation? 
Locate responsibility of teacher and pupil in a procedure in 
which the interaction of teaching and learning prevails. 

5. When does a question come in front of the answer? Do 
students who give correct answers necessarily know the correct 
answers ? 

CHAPTER VI 

1. Work out a distinction between a mechanical theory of 
society (or education) and the social theory of society (or edu- 
cation). 



SUGGESTIVE HELPS AND PROBLEMS 363 

2. Explain the social principle in relation to a shared life. 

3. Is it possible to lay down definite laws or rules to be fol- 
lowed in developing or teaching all subjects? Is it probable 
that any such laws are applicable to the mind's way of operating 
before a challenge or problem? When the emphasis is shifted 
from the primacy of subject-matter and mechanical methods to 
the primacy of boys and girls working forward in a challenge, 
what becomes of such devices as the five formal steps? 

4. Envisage an ideal school; describe the teacher in it; paint 
a vivid word picture of the pupil with inhibitions removed and 
at work under a responsible freedom. 

5. Distinguish between art and science. Is prediction possi- 
ble or essential in a human situation? Can we know what to 
do next in dealing with human behavior? What does it mean to 
take the moral hazard ? A rule is laid down in September to the 
effect that if a boy plays truant in March he will be required to 
stay after school five consecutive days and to walk 217 parasangs 
round and round the building each day. What's wrong with 
such rules? A boy misses his school seven times in a hundred 
and repeats this practice often enough to warrant stating it as 
a law. Then the delinquent boy is apprised of the regularity 
of his absences. He proceeds at once to correct the matter. 
In the next hundred days there are no absences. What be- 
comes of the law? A rule is made that teachers shall not use 
tobacco. (Not that they should be encouraged to do so.) 
Anybody, however incompetent, could live up to such rules. 

6. Does the scientific method, or rather the method of the 
experimental scientist, apply in the moral realm and in the art 
of teaching? (See definition of scientific method, p. 372.) 

CHAPTER VII 

1. Define freedom as capacity and relate it to self-discipline 
with a working distinction between a real freedom and a mass of 
loose ideas — such as general indulgence, "personal liberty," 
rights, license, anarchy of tolerance, spurious relinquishments 
of idleness and asceticism, honest opinions, and neurotic crav- 
ings to paddle one's own canoe irrespective of social restraints. 

2. Study a half-dozen successful persons whom you know, 
and try to account for their development. Is genius or talent 



364 SUGGESTIVE HELPS AND PROBLEMS 

or power self -created out of opportunity to grow in the direction 
of successful experimentation ? What is the effect of encouragers 
in the first expressions of the child in language, music, art, use 
of tools, etc. ? Are there dispositions or impulses to grow and 
habits of life common to all normally constituted human beings 
out of which potential powers may be realized? 

3. Set up a problem in which initiative may be developed. 
(See chapter I and pp. 1 2 5-1 26.) Cite a clear-cut example of the 
exercise of initiative either in or out of school. 

4. Establish the relation between mechanical, formal, super- 
imposed methods and the growth of initiative. 

CHAPTER VIII 

1. Indicate the task of education in terms of the transmission 
of our social heredity. Make a clear distinction between physio- 
logical heredity and social heredity. 

2. In considering diversification of capacities and powers as 
a dominant characteristic of American life is it essential to try 
to establish upper limits for any individual? Instead of think- 
ing of the equality of persons or of differences in original nature, 
would it not be a wholesome philosophy to start with each indi- 
vidual as a developing personality with measureless capacity 
for growth and self-realization? Is it true that teaching is 
concerned with the thesis that success is a function of effort and 
opportunity ? 

3. About 150 years ago it was quite generally held that it 
would be fatal to teach all children to read. " Who will do the 
unpleasant types of work if everybody is taught to read ? " said 
the called and chosen. "Besides," they said, "there are large 
numbers born short, who have not sufficient mentality to learn 
to read and compute." Is long division the most difficult stage, 
relatively speaking, in mathematics from mere counting to cal- 
culus? Nobody any longer seriously questions the ability of 
children to master long division. Teachers face the task with 
determination and confidence that it shall be done. Public 
opinion supports the general proposition of the educability of all 
children up through the four fundamental social arts — the 3 R's 
and drawing in our elementary schools. Is a girl in the high 
school biologically unfit for the study and mastery of algebra? 



SUGGESTIVE HELPS AND PROBLEMS 365 

Is any boy in the high school by nature incapacitated for the 
mastery of grammar? May not high school education now in 
the 20th century be regarded as the essential basis for a broad- 
casted intelligence — a common background upon which to focus 
every person's life? All boys and girls in the high school can, 
if they will, succeed in any study in the curriculum. What is 
your reaction? The boy is tagged as failing in Latin early in 
the year. The teacher says he can't learn it and asks to have 
him transferred to some other course. The boy goes into stenog- 
raphy and masters it. May not stenography be as difficult as 
Latin? Account for failure in one and success in the other. 

CHAPTER IX 

1. Is a philosophy of teaching essential? Is there a danger 
in pretending not to have a philosophy about human nature 
and at the same time being a victim of a most pernicious variety 
of thinking and practice in dealing with a human situation? 

2. Explain the purpose of a scientific principle or a formula 
in working in the field of human behavior. Is the practice of 
medicine made simpler and easier by the introduction of our 
modern scientific technic ? Was it not much easier in the days 
of magic, pills, and nostrums? A proper use of the surgeon's 
instruments requires years of training, high skill, and technical 
ability. Can anybody teach? Teachers are now required to 
analyze, diagnose, study the "patients" or "cases," prescribe 
treatment, and if the "cases" do not respond further diagnosis, 
analysis, and study must follow and a change in treatment be 
provided. Has this suggestion any bearing on directing study ? 

3. Is the dominant purpose of the high school the training 
of leaders? Are leaders born, *. e., do their powers depend upon 
native gifts or are they made in the stream of life ? The ques- 
tion of the "fitness" of children used to be raised in connection 
with elementary education. That is ancient history now. It 
is contended that only 25 per cent to 30 per cent of the adolescent 
population of the United States have sufficient mentality to 
profit by a high-school education. What is your reaction to this 
assumption? Public elementary and secondary education is 
concerned mainly with the task of making the "common man" 
an efficient participant in the social, moral, intellectual, material, 



366 SUGGESTIVE HELPS AND PROBLEMS 

and civic life of the community and the nation and also to teach 
people how to live together in a democracy. Is leadership an 
emerging quality out of the try-out of all in a system of educa- 
tion in which resources are tapped from every level of society? 
Is not the responsibility of the school very definitely centred in 
the proposition that the fullest development of every individual 
is imperative? In what procedure will it be possible for each 
individual to go forward at his own best rate? Keep in mind 
the call for individualism and the need of developing the genius 
for co-operation. It is being seriously proposed that, beginning 
as early as the junior high school, the probable "fitness" of 
little boys and girls shall be ascertained (five levels of intelli- 
gence have been suggested) , and that, since there are five levels 
of occupations requiring corresponding levels of intelligence, the 
pupils shall be classified so as to match levels of intelligence with 
levels of occupations. The pupils of highest intelligence should 
be channelled into a curriculum (and classification) that would 
fit them for the "work of life" requiring the highest intelligence, 
etc. What do you think about it? 

4. Thinking is a function of habit. Explain this proposition. 

5. Without a problem there is no (creative) thinking. To 
what extent is it possible to develop classroom procedures in 
the direction of this statement? A study of definitions, ap- 
pended, may prove suggestive in attacking the problem. 



DEFINITION AND USE OF TERMS 

Alternate leaderships — a recognition of technical and trained 
ability in a theory of society based upon diversification of merits; 
a new basis of intelligent co-operation in which every individual 
counts; each individual retains self-respect by his unique con- 
tribution in a shared life; the teacher is appreciated, not for 
erudition, but for expert capacity in directing activity, in be- 
coming a consulting expert, in stimulating curiosity, in arousing 
enthusiasm. 

Americanism — a social theory of life in which persons are price- 
less, measureless in capacity, and free — never regarded as things, 
tools, or servants to be fashioned to mechanical ends; each per- 
son finds (realizes) the purpose of his life by living it; authentic 
Americanism is a developing synthesis made by withdrawing 
from each element (race or individual) the best qualities and re- 
composing them in a symphony of ideals and practices; the 
spirit of give-and-take and the policy of live-and-let-live charac- 
terize a true democratic society; in it all are true sportsmen and 
equal in that sense; no two persons are ever equal in attainment; 
uniformity is not the essence of Americanism; e pluribus unum 
(one from many) and the converse, many from one (ideal),* will 
help teachers to see education in a truer light. 

Challenge — any body of materials or principles presented as a 
basis of study for a class group; substituted for lesson, project, 
problem, topic methods; time, indeterminate (i. e., it may be a 
day's work, two or three days' work, a week or six weeks or 
even longer); in it no upper limit is set for any pupil at any 
time; the circle is described big enough to give profitable work 
for every one; principles (organizing ideas) are common elements 
of unity — exercises (indeterminate but definite) furnish a basis 
for recognizing individual differences. See Chap. I. 

Co-operative learning — any form of self-teaching or partner- 
ship and group activities developed by the teacher in guiding 

* Plures ex uno. 
367 



368 DEFINITION AND USE OF TERMS 

pupils in their work; an application of the social principle in 
classroom procedure; a whole class may work in partnerships 
(two in each) or in groups with a leader, one pupil hearing another 
recite, or one acting as chairman in a group, or two or more work- 
ing forward under productive conversational practices; a means 
of curing some pupils of work-shyness produced by a lesion of 
social sense; in such procedures teachers become directors of 
action, consulting experts, and general managers. 

Corporate spirit — opposed to group mediocrity and uniformity 
and regimentation of all kinds; some highest common multiple 
is sought in which to express a community of interests; up out 
of individual activity (each on his mark) toward consensus and 
unity is the direction of a responsible freedom; under the chal- 
lenge each strives for self-mastery in his own best way — the 
movement is toward co-operations out of directed self -activity; 
the pupil, not the class, is the educative unit ; the ideal of organi- 
zation (the majesty of plan and precision) is regarded, not as an 
end, but a means in the development of a self-active, responsible 
person. 

Creativeness — a purposeful activity in which raw materials 
from brute facts to pigments, from passions to ideals are being 
fashioned toward some goal — not for the "sake of the loaves 
and fishes"; building a tangible project — cabinet, cake, picture, 
blue print — fabricating a story, constructing a chapter, working 
out a problem in history or what not — in short, using materials 
of any sort in the realization of some worthy purpose or ideal 
suggests creativeness; teachers cannot rely on old movie films 
stored up in the rag-bag of memory — a new movie film must be 
created in a free reconstruction of the past at the fork of the road. 

Determinism — any philosophy or practice that hinders a free 
and continuous revaluation of persons; a belief that man by 
original nature is doomed. The branding of children as incom- 
petent, "no good," tends to cut the nerve of effort-making 
capacity; initiative drops out of sight. 

Education — interpreted as a process of creativeness in which 
we make the individual, in which we seek to build a mind tolerant, 
fearlessly honest, expectant of change, inventive, alert, and re- 
sourceful. 

Educative unit — instead of the class, the pupil in any group is 
the educative unit; individual achievement is focal; materials of 



DEFINITION AND USE OF TERMS 369 

instruction are to be gripped in challenges in which there is pro- 
vision for both free individual energizing and co-operations. 

Fork-of-the-road education — vital education (not training) be- 
gins at the point of crisis; new situations call for creative think- 
ing; exact copies are not used at the point of difficulty; playing 
the game (chess or football) illustrates action at the fork of the 
road: the new set of circumstances and combinations must be 
met by creating a new movie film at the point of deciding what 
to do next in this situation — a situation which never occurred on 
land or sea. The past (experience, history, knowledge, facts) 
as well as temperament, sentiments, passions, beliefs, ideas — 
all experience up to this crisis (new situation) is the raw material 
upon which intelligence works to furnish the will a point of de- 
parture from which to embark. 

Heredity — a distinction between physiological heredity and 
social heredity; arguments in the former may not apply in lat- 
ter; educative process is concerned essentially with transmission 
of evolutionary products; man's powers are born out of the 
loins of humanity; humanity is an organism including language 
customs, beliefs, technics, institutions, every aspect of the so- 
cial organization — civilization in brief; for the teacher every man 
is born wholly uncivilized, susceptible of becoming a savage, 
a fifth-century mind, or a twentieth-century mind; endless vari- 
ation ought to be expected; it is not the task of education to 
produce uniformity. 

Heredity and classification — two theories: (i) disclose levels of 
native mentality (educability or basic intelligence), find out what 
the individual is good for, educate him accordingly, work out 
groupings for homogeneous ability; (2) dwell on social heredity 
and keep opportunity open and free and refuse to seek uniformity 
or mediocrity on any level. An analogy: automobility — Fords 
to Packards all use the common highway; separate roads are 
not constructed for different makes of cars; the Ford runs under 
its own power and may pull the Packard out of the ditch or 
arrive ahead; futile to say one is more useful than the other — 
neither is endowed with a heaven-born function. Again, the 
outer wheels are accelerated in turning the corners; they are 
not removed and given a separate classification. The dif- 
ferential takes care of different speeds. 

Our leaders are made in the stream of life. Our leadership is 



370 DEFINITION AND USE OF TERMS 

an emerging quality. Another figure may serve to illuminate 
the educative process. A complete circle can be produced by a 
radius of any length by finding a centre of constancy for one end 
of it and freedom in work for the other. The radius of any indi- 
vidual is not heaven-born; it is never a constant. What we 
need to do is to have complete circles whether the radius be 
long or short, and to refuse to accept any fatalistic postulates 
about its potential length in any individual in the making. 
The big circle need not be scandalized by the presence of the 
smaller circle meshing into it; the smaller circle need not be hu- 
miliated by engagement with the larger. A small boy rose to it 
as if to the manner born by saying that the small wheel is often 
the most important part of the machine. So much by way of 
suggestion in the emphasis laid on social heredity in our educa- 
tional task. 

The practical suggestion to teachers is to expect variation in 
capacity and achievement in every class and provide for differ- 
entials within the common challenge. 

Indeterminate assignment — a working idea or principle (desig- 
nated challenge) is set forth as a centre of action; within the cir- 
cle described there is room for an infinite variety of patterns; 
the pupil, working forward in the challenge, under his own power, 
does not finish any challenge; no upper limit in materials is set; 
in fact, the principle is also indeterminate; it is a way of thinking; 
the facts, the exercises, problems, etc., within a challenge are 
never fully exhausted; room is provided for superior profitable 
production beyond mastery. It is not known just how many 
sentences one needs to work out on the relative pronoun to over- 
take the relative-pfonoun idea; the pupil of high power goes on 
and on in the materials (exercises from many books and sources) 
up into exceedingly difficult relative-pronoun sentences. To the 
teacher: grip the relative-pronoun idea as a working principle 
and then provide abundant raw material to work on — enough to 
give the most capable pupil all he can do in a real challenge. 

Inhibitions — or defense reactions — any self-created or super- 
imposed obstacles hindering free self-expression; fear, repressive 
measures, lack of understanding of studies, lock-step methods 
tend to build up inhibitions; working for mastery and creative 
thinking in a directed-study procedure releases energy. 

Mastery — cure for half-learning and a corrective in giving 
marks indicating incapacity; a relative mastery in the last analy- 



DEFINITION AND USE OF TERMS 371 

sis. After working into a challenge, extending some five or six 
weeks, set out blocks of material, as many as there are pass marks, 
and require a mark of excellent in each block in testing for mas- 
tery; e. g., block one, containing the essential principles in the 
challenge and enough exercises (material) for mastery and ap- 
preciation of the principles constitutes basis for lowest (of three, 
say) pass marks, and the student must make excellent in this 
material to earn lowest pass mark; block two contains all of one 
and additional exercises or work; to make the next higher mark 
the student must make excellent in block two, etc. Until this 
is done a mark of N. M. (No mastery) is used to designate the 
status of pupil in particular challenges. Mastery is not abso- 
lute; there is a progressive mastery as higher stages in the sub- 
ject are reached. A principle may not be comprehended until 
seen in subsequent relations or in a difficult exercise used to 
clarify one's intellectual method. 

Minimum essentials — the emphasis is shifted from content 
(i. e., pages and quantity of subject-matter) to principles — or- 
ganizing ideas. 

Organizing principles — core ideas, hypotheses, ways of think- 
ing; the discipline of principles is substituted for the discipline of 
facts; a way of thinking is conceived, and data, facts, informa- 
tion are used in thinking the principle; e. g., factoring in mathe- 
matics is a way of thinking — it is the factoring idea that must 
be gripped; exercises are the raw materials used in building up 
the idea; or case in grammar is an organizing principle — it is the 
case idea or case consciousness ; exercises are so much raw material 
to be used in building the concept of case; the building materials 
should be indeterminate in amount so that no upper limit is 
reached by any member of the class. 

Problem — see challenge; the challenge is the more inclusive 
term; a body of material such as words for spelling in a competi- 
tive performance may be a real challenge in which the game 
furnishes the motive; the problem is a higher type of motiva- 
tion; in it there is purposeful pursuit in the attainment of objec- 
tives embodying creative thinking^ what is done at any stage in 
a real problem procedure is checked up against some hypothesis 
in the light of facts used in the realization of the goal set up as 
an end. Without a problem there is no (creative) thinking means 
that when smooth running action is checked a choice must be 
made in terms of new factors. The building of minds capable of 



372 DEFINITION AND USE OF TERMS 

analyzing problems in the light of facts is the high aim of edu- 
cation. 

Reconstruction of experience — in a world of changes the next 
step is always at the fork of the road; the next step is never a 
copy of a preceding step; past experience (history, knowledge, 
facts, beliefs, sentiments) is the raw material which intelligence 
works on to furnish the will a way of acting in the next move 
ahead; this next step is a creative synthesis; it requires the moral 
hazard; it is the basis of artistic effort; the next move in a human 
situation calls for a free reconstruction of experience (information, 
scholarship, methods — all of one's past). 

Scientific humanism — a recognition that fixed laws are applica- 
ble to inanimate forces in the popular quantitative sense; a 
formula or scientific principle in a human situation opens the 
way to a consideration of new phases of life; a human being is 
of too multiple warp and woof to be comprehended within defini- 
tions and formulas. The physician analyzes, diagnoses, studies 
the patient and prescribes treatment; if the patient does not 
respond, he carries analysis and diagnosis further and changes 
the treatment. The scientific principle calls for a high order of 
skill and creative thinking; it does not simplify the human situa- 
tion to introduce science in this sense. 

Scientific method — the experimental scientist is concerned with 
setting the thing in this and that control or set of circumstances 
to see what happens; he is concerned with change, not with what 
is originally given; he studies processes in terms of what happens 
when the thing is placed under new conditions. The method 
includes a way of thinking, an hypothesis (often arising in 
challenging an established law or custom), an examination of the 
facts, an experimental control of the thing in hand, a study of 
the thing under this and that control, a redefining of hypotheses 
in the light of the facts, and a tentative conclusion based upon 
the experiment. Where there is opportunity to experiment 
there is hope to improve. The experimental scientist is not 
seeking a "resting place," a finality; his is a world of changes — 
never a world of absolutes; he is not looking for copies to be re- 
produced; his work is a creative synthesis at every turn in the 
road. The artist and the sculptor, as well as the physicist and 
the chemist, employ the scientific method. 



INDEX 



Adamson, J., on installation, 2. 

Alexander, T,, Prussian Schools, 
270. 

Algebra, conducting class in, 145- 
149. 

Alternate leaderships, meaning of, 
77) 367; appreciated among pu- 
pils, 158; recognition and appre- 
ciation of, 260-262. 

Americanism, a social theory of 
life, 367. 

Arithmetic, illustrating procedure 
in, 12-13; popular psychology of, 
23; ratings in tests, 171. 

Assignment, illustrated in mathe- 
matics, 15-25; indeterminate 
character of, 144-172; set-lesson, 
179. 

Attention, concerted, 16; fallacy 
of paying, 20. 

Attitude, accepting a closed or open 
world, 9; of teacher toward pu- 
pil) 75 — 77; of pupil toward work, 
78-80; of educator on human 
evolution, 283-284; of teacher in 
use of science, 311-312. 

Authority, mechanical exercise of, 
273-276. 

Bagley, W. C, determinism, 307. 

Bible, an experiment in Bible sto- 
ries, 160-163. 

Briffault, R., opinions, 251; on so- 
cial heredity, 283-284. 

Britten, on curiosity, 57. 

Capacity, classification of, 20-21; 
no basis of prophecy of, 24; com- 
parison of college seniors and 
9th-grade pupils in, 76; pro- 
vision for varying, 84; many- 



sided nature of, 100; measure- 
lessness of, 217; created in suc- 
cessful expression, 256-257. 

Challenge, conceiving work in 
terms of, 7-58; definition of, 144, 
367; working under a vital, 168- 
171; appeal in a real, 173; a big 
realization in, 201-202. 

Chance, law of, 105-109. 

Chores, effect of piece-work, 201- 
202. 

Class period, need of longer, 65-67; 
effective utilization of, 72-75. 

Classification, lack of uniformity 
in any, 14-15; Umitations of, 81- 
82; effect of tags in, 91; unrelated 
to learning process, 102; likeness 
not desired in, 286; penchant 
for, 288-290; "those-who" fal- 
lacy in, 293-295. 

Clutton-Brock, A., on genius, 285. 

Cooley, C. H., what intelligence 
works on, 153; growth under 
successful experiment, 256-257. 

Co-operative Learning, illustrated 
in partnership work, 14, 146; in 
assisting teacher, 19, 124-125; 
and teaching, 200-201; definition 
of, 367. 

Corporate spirit, provision for, 35; 
sharing activity, 190; possibili- 
ties of developing the, 217-218; 
developed through alternate 
leaderships, 260-262; definition 
of, 368. 

Creativeness, setting problems for 
evocation of, 6-12; self-activity 
in relation to, 24; in imaginary 
advertising, 27-28; in building 
sentence ideas, 32; manifested 
in Bible stories, 162; illustrated 



373 



374 



INDEX 



in ballad-writing, 187-188; ques- 
tioning an aid to, 204; as pur- 
poseful activity, 368. 
Curiosity, throttling of, 57. 

Definition and use of terms, 367. 

Determinism, thinking in closed 
world, 9-1 1 ; inborn heredity, 
282-284; survival theories, 290, 
294; proving alibis, 301-302; 
effect of, 340; definition of, 368. 

Devices, overworking of, 112. 

Dewey, John, on thinking at the 
point of crisis, 2; in How We 
Think, 90, 225; on the experi- 
mental method, 31 1-3 12. 

Differentiation, endless, 151-152; 
one-from-many, 231-232; place- 
ment and, 296; vs. group medi- 
ocrity, 303-305. 

Directing study, in a rural school, 

327-333- , , 

Discussion, basis of, 16; a goal end, 

211. 
Dramatization, in social studies, 

10; in English grammar, 30; of 

Bible stories, 163. 

Education, defined, see Preface and 
368. m 

Educative unit, pupil, not the 
class, 81-85, 368. 

English, directing study in, 36-49; 
use of film in, 52-54; experiment 
in, 154-159; using Bible stories 
in, 160-163; memorizing in, 170; 
writing ballads in, 187. 

Environment, control of, 38; set- 
ting up situations in composi- 
tion, 47-48; experiment in con- 
trolling, 120-129. 

Equality, need of reinterpretation, 
263-264. 

Experimental attitude, in teaching, 
291-293. 

Failures, in relation to probability 
curve, 24; as evidence of prog- 
ress, 101 ; in relation to habit for- 
mation, 103; training in, 175- 



176; as recorded by Flexner, 
208-209. 

Farris, E., on instincts, 82. 

Fatalism, John can't learn it, 5; 
survival of fittest, 259; reinforc- 
ing by indiscriminate use of 
tests, 301. 

Fatigue, confusion about, n 2-1 13. 

Flexner, A., Model School, 208- 
209. 

Fork-of-the-road education, 369. 

Formalism, deletion of, 215-216; 
illustrated in five formal steps, 
223-228; in mechanics of meth- 
ods, 245. 

Formula, purpose in educative 
process, 314-319. 

Freedom, significance of, 205-206; 
nature of real, 247-248; relation 
of opinions to, 248-251; in rela- 
tion to rights and duties, 255- 
256; distinguished from caprice, 
264-265; in work, 265-266; and 
authority, 266, 267; example of 
complete "freedom," 271-272. 

French, achievement of pupils in, 
169-170; pupil's opportunity to 
indulge in oral, 198. 

Genius, the development of, 257; 
realized by effective technic, 285; 
a function of exercise, 291 ; false 
analogy from stock-breeding, 
297. 

Geography, a suggestive proce- 
dure, 27-29. 

Geometry, a demonstration in, 15- 
25; illustration of procedure in, 
120-129. 

Grammar, demonstration in teach- 
ing 20-35. 

Guidance, in the learning process, 
50; educational, 87-89. 

Habits (of work), basis of directing 
study, 94-95; Mead on, 175; of 
study, 344-346. 

Hall and Hall, questioning, 203. 

Heredity, "the boy moves," 194- 
196; origin of man's powers, 254- 



INDEX 



375 



255; growth in line of successful 
experiment, 256-258; the dete- 
riorate, 259; success a function 
of exercise, 281-284; social he- 
redity, 284; "Haves and Have 
Nots," 289; man's task, 295; 
physiological and social, 369; 
heredity and classification, 369. 

History, suggesting problems-pro- 
cedure in, 9-1 1; co-operative 
learning in, 151. 

Hudson, J. W., the meaning of 
America. 

Human situations, not met by 
formula, 193-197; a projected 
study of, 251-255; complexity 
of, 311. 

Ideals, our American, 262-264; 
effect of national, 268-271; 282- 
283. 

Imbeciles, the making of, 176; 
functional defectives, 343. 

Independence, interpretation of, 
125-126. 

Indeterminate assignment, a work- 
ingidea, 370. 

Individual differences, provision 
for, 15; teaching to meet endless 
variety of, 20; revealed in work- 
ing group, 84; 120-129; differen- 
tials to meet, 144-172; illus- 
trated in Bible-story work, 160- 
163; in terms of achievement, 
168-171; in rates of reading, 172; 
meaning of individuality, 322- 
327. 

Inhibitions, removal of, 7-58; in- 
herent in the system, 177-179; 
as defense reactions, 370. 

Initiative, making provision for, 
47-49; modes of expressing, 126; 
directing action requires, 189- 
191; failure to develop, 272-273; 
development of, 277-280. 

Instillation, the traditional process 
of, 1-2; recurring in drill, 32. 

Instincts, nature of and implica- 
tions, 81-82. 



Intelligence tests, relation to work, 
21 ; limitations of, 24; complexity 
of human situation, 105-106; 
relation of other factors in, 153; 
unwise use of, 284; prophecy not 
essential in education, 298-301; 
danger in labels derived from, 
340-341; productive use of, 342- 
344- 

Interaction, teaching and learning 
integrated, 192. 

Jacks, L. P., alchemy of thought, 

206, 311. 
Judd, C. H, High School Subjects, 

96; Teacher Study, 113. 

Langdon-Davies, J., militarism in 
education, 275, 282. 

Latin, pupil's account of study of, 
139-^140; a vocabulary built by 
pupils, 159, 170. 

Learning Process, formulating pro- 
cedure in terms of, 59; nature of, 
90-100; illustrated in mastery of 
visual pattern, 96-100; in prac- 
tical world, 227-231. 

Leslie, S., on sportsmanship, 194. 

Lessons, undirected preparation 
of, 113-120; preparation of by 
teachers secondary, 153-154. 

MacMunn, N., creating interest, 
159; partnership teaching, 198- 
199. 

McMurry, F. M., see Preface. 

Mastery, provision for testing, 22; 
half-learning and, 337-340; defi- 
nition of, 370. 

Mead, C. D., on Habits of Work, 

175- 

"Methods," futility of, 180; for- 
mal^ 184-185; as such, inapplica- 
ble in directing study, 214; in- 
adequacy of, 238-242. 

Minimum essentials, for whom?, 
147-148; of principles, Chap. IV; 
become maximum necessities, 
193; a shift from content to 
principles, 371 



376 



INDEX 



Mirror-mindedness, in relation to 
creative thinking, 111-112; and 
rote learning, 114-116. 

Mistakes, studied in learning situa- 
tions, 101-113. 

Montessori, on watching the child 
with a problem, 3. 

Moore, E. C, Education as World 
Building, 199-200; on scientific 
thinking, 207. 

Moral analysis, continues in new 
situations, 191; requires facing 
deeds to be done, 237-244. 

Moving picture, demonstration in 
use of, 50-54; value of, 53. 

Nunn, T. P., life patterns, 152. 

Obedience, relation to initiative, 
277-280. 

Order, keeping class in, 177; self- 
defeating, 216; by authority, 
268-270; made administrative 
fetich, 273-275. 

Organizing principles, substituted 
for the discipline of facts, 371. 

Originality, provision for, 1-3; il- 
lustrated in use of slides, 52; ex- 
pression of, 139-140. 

Participation, preparing teachers 
by, 36-45; preparation in direct- 
ing study, 153-154- 

Passivity, habits of, 51. 

Paton, S., on standardization, 274, 
284. 

Pendleton, on procedure, 160. 

Philosophy of education, impera- 
tive, 308-314. 

Plan, intellectual method of learn- 
er, 18-20; of thinking illustrated 
in science, 130-139; of thinking 
reported by pupils, 130, 139- 
142; in directing study, 167-168; 
not predetermined, 197. 

Plan-Book, inadequate in direct- 
ing study, 189-191. 

Prediction, see Prophecy. 

Principles, organizing means for 
unity, 15, 16; clarification of, 35; 



application of, 85;" conception of, 

144-145- 

Problem, teaching in terms of, 
Chap. I; possibilities in, 206- 
208; in life (practical) situation, 
230-277; basis of creative think- 
ing, 349-350; basis for studying 
the book, 353; a higher type of 
motivation toward a purposeful 
goal, 371. 

Projects, in relation to general 
method, 23; in chemistry, 140- 
142; co-operative, 150; culmi- 
nating, 164-167. 

Prophecy, fails in directing action, 
9-57; in relation to creativeness, 
121-141; in the learning process, 
97-113; as to achievement, 160- 
171; after removing inhibitions, 
187-189; at the fork of the road, 
236-245; and a controlled ex- 
periment, 251-255; essential in 
emergency and for efficiency, 
298-300; not essential in scien- 
tific method, 31 1-3 12. 

Publicity, of results in English, 
156. 

Puzzle-stage, failure to think in, 
55—56; glorified bag of tricks in, 
207-208. 

Questioning, a factor of control, 4; 
in relation problem-procedure, 
6-8; in front of answers, 203- 
204; pupil in Prussian system de- 
nied, 268. 

Recitation, futility of, 72-74; si- 
phoning vacuums in, 103; get- 
ting lessons for, 113-119; waste 
in, 129; an example of the, 175- 
176; time for each pupil in, 198- 
199; the socialized, 200; in 
Prussian schools, 270. 

Reconstruction, of experience, 238- 
240; place of intelligence (his- 
tory) in, 313 ;definition of term, 
372. 

Regimentation, danger in, 22; re- 
currence of, 293-295. 



INDEX 



377 



Responsibility, assumption of, 4; 
shifted by labelling pupils, 289- 
290; popular effect of tests in re- 
lation to, 301-302; locating and 
fixing, 346-349- 

Results, checking and measuring, 
4> 33> fallacy in marking, 107- 
112; indicating by chart, 168. 

Richmond, K., interpretation of 
figures, 207. 

School, description of the new, 
232-234; every class a prospect- 
ing party, 234-235. _ 

Science, guiding pupils in, 55; 
examining methods of thinking 
in, 130-139; work of pupil in, 
140-142; culminating projects 
in, 164-167. 

Scientific humanism, example of 
physician, 319-322; a scientific 
principle in a human situation, 
372 ; 

Scientific method, conditions of, 
49; illustrated in general science, 
55; the way of the, 205; need of 
in appraising human behavior, 
287; prediction not essential in, 
290; experimental science, 311— 
312; as a way of thinking, 372. 

Self-expression, through freedom to 
work in controlled environment, 
2; 7-36; by directing pupils at 
work, 120-128; by releasing po- 
tentiality, 186-188; removing by 
inhibitions, 198-200; in con- 
servative activities, 333-336. 

Self-fulfilment, a new doctrine, 
259-260; effected by changing 
circumstances, 290-291. 

Social principle, operating hap- 
hazardly, 1 1 7-1 20; view-point, 
219-221; and curriculum, 220. 

Sportsmanship, game calls for, 
193-194. 

Study, directing at the fork of the 
road, 17; nature of home, 31, 81; 
guidance in, 55; supervising in 
out-of-class situations, 60-64; 



illustrated in mathematics, 1 20- 
129. 
Success, accounted for, 281; a con- 
trolled experiment in realizing, 

315. . 
Suggestive helps and problems 

for teachers, 353. 
Supervisor, seeing partially, 104. 
Suzzallo, H., alternate leaderships, 

261. 
Swift, E. J., Learning and Doing, 

113; Mind in Making, 277. 

Teacher, as director of activity, 
1 21-125; as consulting expert, 
198; in a redirected college class, 
210. 

Teacher study, a means of improv- 
ing teaching, 92-113. 

Temptations, prescribed, 220; to 
excellence, 306—307. 

Tests, in relation to learning proc- 
esses, iio-iii; limitations of 
standardized, 105-106; environ- 
ment in relation to, 251-253; 
changes in persons in relation 
to, 296; value of, 299. 

Thinking, rationalizing, 23, 286; 
directing study for creative, 17, 
31-32, 34, 121-142, 186-189; 
revery, 182; social heredity in 
relation to, 284; a function of 
habit, 344-346. 

Thorndike, E. L., on reasoning, 
123; on initiative, etc., 125-126. 

Tolstoi, on freedom, 271. 

Uniformity, not essential, 144; 
regimental, 223-225; the indi- 
vidual and, 336-340. 

Verbalisms, empty, 183-185. 

Woellner, F. P., on the recitation, 
179. 

Work-Spirit, developing the, 25; 
directing pupils at work, 120- 
129; results of, 1 68-1 71; con- 
verting class to, 189-190. 



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